


Good Things Do Happen

by castiel_lightwood



Category: Supernatural
Genre: (I'll add tags/characters as I go through and they get added to the story), Fluff, Office AU, dad!Cas, young!claire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-11 04:28:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3313976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castiel_lightwood/pseuds/castiel_lightwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean Winchester works in the same office as Cas Novak, who is he hopelessly in love with. Cas hasn't dated in the four years since his wife died, leaving him as the sole carer for his daughter Claire. But is that about to change? </p><p>(Basically just dad!destiel with claire)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Mr Winchester?" he looked up, knowing before he did who was at his office door.

"How can I help you, Mr Novak?" he smiled, starting to get up but the other man waved him down.

"Don't bother, please. These came for you, and I thought I'd pop over with them. Save you the trouble of going." he held out a pile of three letters.

"Oh. Right." Dean took the letters, flicking through them but not actually managing to read the mailing addresses. "Thank you very much."

Mr Novak smiled at him and left, closing Dean's door behind him.

Dean groaned and dropped his head into his hands.

He was hopelessly infatuated Mr. Castiel Novak.

Dean wasn't even sure when it had started. They'd been working at the company together for over six years, and although Dean had thought Cas was pretty hot even on his first day, he  
hadn't started feeling like this until much more recently. Thank God. He didn't think he could have survived six years of this.

The problem with Mr Novak was that he was always so nice, so polite. Bringing Dean a cup of coffee if he'd had to work through his break, or offering to run something down to the photocopier to save him the trip. Dean liked to think that it worked both ways – he’d fetch coffee as often as Cas did, and sometimes he even took a phone call for Cas if the other man was stressing over finding childcare for his daughter.

But Dean couldn't tell whether this was just a healthy professional relationship or if Cas wanted more between them. Because from what Dean had gathered from the gossip in the staff coffee room, Cas was completely off limits. He'd turned down every date, platonic and romantic alike. But he was always so polite to everyone that all Dean gathered from the women was slight resentment.

Dean understood why Cas didn't date. It was the same reason he missed every work party that they organised - he had his daughter Claire to look after. He wouldn't leave her alone in the evenings, and she spent so much time in clubs during the summer holidays that the week he took off for Christmas was devoted solely to her.

Dean still remembered the death of Cas's wife as if it had been yesterday. Four years ago now, she'd been in a head on collision on her way home from the shops. Cas and three years old Claire had been waiting for her to come home and instead opened the door to a policeman with condolences that they didn't want to hear.

Four years without so much as one evening out. Dean shook his head. He understood why Cas didn't want to date, but surely Claire could go to a friend's house every once in a while? Didn't her dad deserve at least one night of fun?

Dean hadn't asked Cas out, knowing that the answer would be no. He didn't want to force Cas into an uncomfortable situation either and he didn't want to ruin this relationship they had. Because like it or not, Cas was one of the easiest people to work with in this business.

He sighed and began reading the letters Cas had brought him.

-

The company was working towards securing the rights to a project, and the stress on all the employees was growing. Dean worked late most nights, trying to get through the sheer volume of paperwork.

"Dean?" he looked up from his computer screen in shock. Why was Cas still here? He'd gone home half an hour ago - but what was he holding in his hands?

Cas held out a white cardboard box and a takeout mug of coffee. "I thought you'd want something to eat if you're going to be staying so late." Dean took the items, wordless with shock, and put them on the table. He picked up his wallet. "Thanks so much, what do I owe you -"

"Oh, you don't need to pay me back. Besides, I still owe you for the coffee last week."

"Right," Dean said weakly. "You sure?"

Cas smiled and Dean nearly exploded, he couldn't cope with how gorgeous Cas was. "Positive. I'll see you tomorrow, don't stay too late."

"Got it," Dean grinned, perhaps a little too widely. He glanced down at his computer, knowing he wouldn't be leaving early tonight at all.

"Goodnight, Dean."

"Night, Cas." he replied, but when he looked up, Cas had already gone.

He sighed and opened the white box.

Cas had bought him apple pie. He groaned quietly and ate a forkful, immediately feeling better. He hadn't realised how hungry he was. Maybe staying late was worth it if Cas brought him  
pie.

He looked back at the amount of work on his screen. Then again, maybe not.

-

Two days later, they were all called for a meeting. Cas was sat across the table from Dean but a few seats down, so he was constantly in Dean’s peripheral vision. Not helpful when he was trying to concentrate on whatever important thing the project manager was trying to tell them.

“Mr Winchester has been staying late most nights this week,” his head snapped up, cheeks blushing slightly at the note of praise in the manager’s voice. “I’d like the rest of you to follow his example. We can’t risk losing this project now, not after we’ve put so much effort and resources in already.”

Dean saw Cas shift in his seat uncomfortably. Afterward the meeting had ended, Dean went looking for him and found him drinking the disgusting staff canteen coffee.

“You need me to take some of your workload?” Dean asked, pouring himself a glass of water. Anything to avoid the muck they called coffee.  
Cas shook his head. “I can manage. Its just staying late… I can’t –”

“Claire.” Dean nodded. “Couldn’t you pick her up from school and bring her here?”

Cas shook his head. “Its not fair on her. And she doesn't like it here, I don't know -"

"I'm sure she'd enjoy going to a friends house. Isn't she begging you to let her sleepover at other peoples' houses?"

Cas shook his head, anxiously running a hand through his hair. "She doesn't want to sleep over. She just wants to come home at normal time for once." His eyes shifted to Dean almost nervously. "If I leave at "normal time", Claire's already been in after school club for a couple of hours, I can't make it even longer -" He sat down wearily. "I feel like such a failure."

Dean was shocked speechless. When he regained his voice he spluttered "no you're not. You're doing the best you can, you're doing enough -"

Cas laughed. "When you have kids yourself, Dean, you'll realise that enough is never good enough." He downed the last of his coffee."Excuse me."

Dean watched him leave, every inch of Cas's body screaming tension and stress. God, he wished he could do something to help. But by the looks of things, there was nothing he could do. 

-

The next morning, Cas knocked on Dean's door. "Claire's going to a different friend's house every night this week." he said shortly.

Dean smiled. "That's wonderful."

"No its not really." Cas paused. "But thank you."

He left before Dean could say anything else. But he understood Cas's actions because he'd done it enough times himself. Self preservation.

-

The pressure began to crank up in the following week, and soon Dean didn't have the time or mental capacity to worry about Cas and Claire. The strain was beginning to show even more clearly on Cas though - his appearance was even starting to suffer. When he arrived to work in an unironed shirt, Dean didn't say anything but Cas flushed all the same.

"No time to do the ironing this week," he muttered as Dean made to leave his office. Dean paused and turned back. "You want to borrow a spare one of mine?" He normally kept a couple in his office, just in case something went wrong like he spilt coffee down himself before an important meeting.

Cas shook his head, cheeks red.

"Its no problem," Dean said, just wanting to help out however he could.

"Do you pity me, Dean?" Cas asked with sudden bitterness.

Dean blinked. "No. I appreciate the awfulness of your situation and just want to help." He hesitated and then added. "I spent high school balancing getting my grades for college and working to look after my kid brother."

Cas's eyes met his with guilt and then renewed respect. "I didn't know."

"I don't exactly advertise it," Dean replied dryly. "Now come on, let me get you a new shirt. And I'll take that one home to iron if you want."

Cas stood, shaking his head. "That won't be necessary. But thank you." He still followed Dean into his office, waiting as Dean worked out which shirt to give Cas.

He chose the light blue because it was one that he rarely wore, and also because it would go nicely with Cas's eyes. He growled at himself, "Focus, Dean" before handing the shirt to Cas.

"You can bring it back at the end of the day and then I can take it home. Save you from washing it."

Emotions flirted across Cas's face. "Dean -"

"Don't." He touched Cas's arm lightly. "You deserve to be looked after once in a while, okay?"

He left so that Cas could change and before he did something stupid.

-

Friday was the big day. The day they'd find out if all their work had paid off or not. By Wednesday, everyone was starting to get a bit short with each other and Dean was avoiding the coffee room - he didn't have the energy to argue with anyone or listen to office bitching.

Neither, it seemed, did Cas. He barely talked to anyone, not even Dean. He worked solidly, eating his lunch from home at his desk.

Dean was going crazy by Thursday afternoon. He needed a break - he physically couldn't think through spreadsheets any more.

He poked his head round Cas's door. "You want anything?"

"You're going out?" 

"My brain physically hurts, I can't do anything without a bit of fresh air."

Cas shook his head. "I'm good, but thanks."

"Anytime." 

Dean grabbed his wallet and walked out of the building, promising his manager that he’d be back as soon as he’d had a few minutes of fresh air. He walked past his car, rolling his shoulders trying to remove the knots in his muscles. He hadn’t realised how hunched over he’d been all day. Working in offices was bad for you, he decided. He’d need to get back into the gym after all this was over and work calmed down a bit. Staying late meant that he hadn’t been for a run in weeks, and he was starting to notice.

Which was why he thought twice before going into the bakery. He hovered outside, deciding between whether a pastry would make him feel better short term or worse in the long term. He suddenly thought of Cas hunched over his desk, permanent creases etched into his forehead. Why he thought of Cas in that moment he didn’t know, but it was what made him push the door open.

He placed the box on Cas’s desk wordlessly and made to leave.

“Dean?” Cas had looked up from his work and was watching him, confused. “I didn’t –”

“Want anything, I know. But I thought you’d like it.”

Cas’s mouth popped open in surprise and then his eyes softened. “Thank you, Dean. Really.” He coughed and turned away ever so slightly.

“Don’t mention it,” Dean smiled and left, knowing that Cas wanted to be left alone. Because he’d seen tears in Cas’s eyes. How bad was it for him that a tiny gesture like buying him a pastry made him cry? Cas deserved to be loved but Dean didn’t know what he could do about that.

“Be his friend,” Dean growled at himself. “Be his friend and don’t expect anything more.”

-

Friday was a day of frayed nerves and hot tempers. They had to have everything done by 1pm so they all had to work through their lunch break. The business manager who needed a company to carry out his project was coming at 2pm, and they’d find out if all their work had paid off by 4pm at the latest. Dean was caught up in a flurry of printing and stapling, but he managed to get everything done. At ten to one, Cas ran into his room, hair sticking out in all directions (Dean resisted the burning urge to flatten it down), asking for Dean’s stapler. They took all their paperwork down to the conference room together and put in on their respective table.

“You want to go get coffee or something?” Dean asked as they traipsed back up the stairs, people running down past them.

“I want to sleep,” Cas replied dryly. “Hopefully they’ll have decided by half three and then I can actually pick Claire up on time for once.”

Dean smiled to cover his disbelief. Cas was completely centered round his daughter, couldn’t he think about something else for once? Then he felt immediately guilty and tried to push those thoughts away.

“She’ll be happy to see you on time,” Dean said but it sounded more like a question than he’d meant it to.

Cas’s smile lit up his whole face. “I’d tell her teacher that I’m coming to get her but I want to surprise her. Cheer her up. She’s had a rough week.” He glanced at Dean as if he’d said too much.

Dean just smiled softly. “How old is she now, seven?”

“Nearly eight. She’s growing up…” Cas trailed off wistfully. “You just wish you could keep them at the innocent age, you know? Protect them from all the bad stuff in the world.”

“Yeah,” Dean thought about his brother and completely understood. He’d protected Sam from everything, not wanting him to get hurt in any way. Had it worked? He didn’t know.

“Can’t wrap them in cotton wool forever though,” Dean reflected. “You have to let them grow up eventually.”

“Personal experience?” Cas asked.

“Something like that.” Dean smiled, pushing his office door open. “You want to come in? We could both do with a rest.”

Cas hesitated then nodded. “I’ve got an email to send, but I’ll be as quick as I can.”

Dean grabbed his wallet from his desk. “I’d better go get us some coffee.”

Cas laughed. “Not prepared to have the canteen stuff?”

“No way, that’s not coffee.”

Cas shrugged and passed Dean a handful of coins. “As much and as strong as you can get it.”

“On it,” Dean pulled on his coat and took the stairs as quickly as he could. He wanted to get back to spend his two hours with Cas.

-

By 3pm, Cas was getting twitchy, glancing at the clock every few minutes. He missed some of the things Dean was saying to him, apologizing after a lengthy pause and realising that Dean had said something to him and was expecting an answer.

At 3:15pm, one of the women from downstairs ran in to tell them that they’d been accepted by the business. She hugged Dean and then Cas, congratulating both of them on their work. 

Dean smiled, not realising how stressed he’d been about this. He felt the huge weight lift from his shoulders and turned to shake Cas’s hand, who used the hand to pull him into some kind of manly hug.

Damn did Cas smell good. Dean inhaled as subtly as he could before letting go.

A moment later a secretary came to tell them that they were all planning on going out for a spontaneous celebration after work and Dean was about to say he’d go when he saw Cas’s shoulders slump next to him. He paused, and told them that he’d try and make it.

Once they’d gone, he turned to Cas. “You’re not coming, then?”

“I can’t, you know I can’t.”

Dean nodded. “Well, I don’t see the point in going if you’re not.”

Cas’s breath hitched. “Dean –”

“You’re the only one here that I enjoy spending time with. The others – I work with them fine, but they’re not –” he took a deep breath. “Friends.”

Cas was speechless. Dean looked away, thinking he’d put his foot in it. “You need to go and get Claire,” Dean mumbled.

“Dean, I –”

“I’m sorry.” Dean picked up his coat, trying to get out as quickly as possible. He was such an idiot –

“I,” Cas took a deep breath. “Do you want to come round for dinner?”

“What?” Dean didn’t mean to sound so surprised and rude.

Cas smiled. “Dinner. With me and Claire. It won’t be anything special, but, you know, if you want to.” Cas coughed. “Of course if you’d rather go out with them, I completely understand –”

“What time?”

The relief on Cas’s face was undisguisable. “Maybe about 6ish?” He wrote down his address hurriedly. “It’s the one on the corner, you can’t miss it.”

Dean grinned. “See you at 6 then.”

“Yeah,” Cas’s grin made up for any lack of elegance in his words. He rushed out the room, pausing at the door to turn and say a very quiet and sincere “thank you,” before disappearing down the corridor.

Dean sat down at his desk and ran a hand through his hair, scarcely believing what had happened. Dinner with Cas Novak and his daughter. Him, Dean Winchester. Tonight.  
He drove home to change into something more casual, the music turned up as load as he could get away with, his hands only shaking slightly on the steering wheel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean goes to Cas and Claire's house for dinner.

Dean pulled into the driveway and paused, listening to the rumble of the engine in an attempt to calm himself down. “Don’t be so pathetic,” he growled at himself and pushed himself out of the car. He picked the bottle and the box of chocolates off the back seat and closed the door with his elbow.

The gravel crunched beneath his feet and he took a deep breath when he reached the front door, glancing down at himself. He’d considered jeans but had opted for chinos instead, wanting to be casual but not rude. Although this was an informal dinner with Cas and his daughter, Dean was still a guest in someone else’s house. And he wanted to make a good impression on both of them.

With the chocolates tucked under one arm and the bottle held in that hand, he rang the doorbell once. He ran a hand through his hair, hoping with all his heart that he’d got the right house. Maybe they weren't home. Maybe they didn't actually want him. Maybe –

The door opened and the light from inside the hallway illuminated Dean, blinding him for a moment. He blinked and focused on Cas, who was thankfully dressed similarly to Dean – he still had his work shirt on but he’d pulled a dark blue sweater over it. He had, however, changed out of his work trousers into a more casual pair.

Dean opened his mouth to say something like “good evening, Cas”, but all that he managed was “hey”.

Cas smiled and huffed out a small laugh, although he still looked tense. “Hello. You found the place okay then?”

"Like you said, can’t miss it."

Cas showed Dean inside and took his coat to hang up. Dean hesitated in the hallway, unsure of what to say or do. He hoped that the rest of the evening wouldn't be this awkward. When Cas returned from hanging his coat up in the downstairs bathroom, he held out the bottle and chocolates.

"You didn't have to bring anything," Cas seemed genuinely surprised that Dean had even thought of it. Dean's heart stuttered with affection.

"I didn't want to turn up empty handed. And its meant to be a celebration, right?" When Cas nodded, he went on, his relief making him speak faster. "But I wasn't sure if you actually drink or not, and with Claire... Well, I just wanted to bring something we could all enjoy, I hope this is okay -"

Cas studied the label on the bright pink bottle. "Raspberry lemonade?"

Dean shrugged. "My brother bought some a while ago and it was pretty nice, so I thought..."

Cas took a deep breath. "Thank you, Dean. So much." There was a moment's pause and then Cas cleared his throat. "Would you like to come through? I've just got a few things to finish off cooking and then we can eat."

"Sure," Dean smiled, trying to make Cas feel easier. He wasn't sure if it was working.

Cas's kitchen was a mess. Well, compared to Dean's anyway. He wasn't really sure what the standard mess for a seven year old was. There were piles of books and drawings, and paint brushes and crayons and pencils in cups scattered across every surface.

"Claire, this is Dean." The girl was sat at the table in the middle of the room, a pencil held between her teeth as she frowned at the piece of paper in front of her. She looked up at Dean and he smiled as softly as he could - hell, he'd never spent much time round kids. What was he meant to do?

Her voice was quiet. "Hi Dean."

"Hey Claire. Its nice to meet you," he glanced at Cas who was looking extremely tense. Dean didn't understand. What had he done wrong?

Claire's gaze went from Dean to her dad and then back to her drawing. She sighed and picked up her rubber, scrubbing out a huge section.

"Do you want to open this now?" Cas asked Dean, holding out the bottle. Dean shrugged. "Its up to you, I don't mind."

"Claire, do you want a drink?" Cas asked, glancing over at his daughter.

She didn't look up. "Yes please."

Cas took three glasses out of the dishwasher and poured the pink liquid into them. He placed a glass on the table next to Claire and gestured for Dean to sit down. Claire looked up at her drink and wrinkled her nose. "Its pink."

"You don't like pink?" Dean asked, curious.

She sighed and answered his question but didn't meet his gaze. "Everyone thinks that because I'm a girl that I love pink things. But blue is so much nicer."

"Oh," Dean frowned, glancing at Cas who was checking something in the oven. What was he meant to say? "Even if it is pink, it still tastes pretty good."

"Hmm," Claire made a non committal noise and looked back at her drawing. Dean couldn't quite see what it was from this angle. Cas came over then and stood next to his daughter, looking over her shoulder. "What you drawing, Claire bear?" He asked, his hand resting on her head in such an affectionate way that Dean almost had to look away. He'd never seen Cas be this caring. But no one could have missed the adoration in his eyes when he looked at his daughter.

She sighed. "Its meant to be a flower. But its not working right."

"It looks fine to me, sweetheart," he kissed the top of her head and went to stir something in a pan. 

Claire's frown deepened. She frowned a lot for a kid, Dean thought. Unless that was normal? He didn't remember much of Sam's seven year old stage as he'd still been a kid himself.

Dean didn't know what to talk about - he didn't want to talk about work really, not while Claire was there, but he didn't feel comfortable asking Claire about her school. She didn't seem to want to talk to him.

Thankfully, Cas cleared his throat and said, "Could you clear your things up, sweetheart? Dinner's ready."

She nodded and slipped off her chair, piling her paper and pencils up and placing them on the side counter. They created yet another pile in the already messy room.

Cas was watching Dean anxiously. "We're not exactly the most tidy family, but -"

Dean cut him off. "Don't worry about it. I really don't mind."

Cas took a deep breath and put the plates on the table before bringing out two pans: one of pasta and one of bolognese sauce. He plated up for Dean first, then Claire, and finally himself. Claire shyly slid a knife and fork towards Dean and he thanked her. Cas suddenly remembered whatever he'd put in the over and brought out a tray of garlic bread.

"I hope its okay..." he said as he sat down, pushing the plate of bread towards Dean and Claire.

"It looks amazing. Thank you." Dean saw Cas's cheeks flush slightly.

They ate in silence for a few minutes and then Cas asked Claire if she had any homework for the next week. She frowned, thinking. "Maths... and some reading." Cas nodded. She glanced between the two of them. "Is your work over now?"

Cas smiled. "Work's never over, but I won't have to work late again for a while."

She nodded and turned back to her food.

"Do you enjoy school?" Dean felt like it was worth a shot asking Claire questions. He had to make this less awkward.

Claire shrugged. "Sometimes." She glanced up at Dean but still didn't meet his gaze. "I like art and reading. But maths is boring."

"Claire's not planning on doing a business degree," Cas told Dean with a smile.

"Any plans already?" Seven seemed terribly young to have your life sorted out. But maybe she did already know. Some people were strange like that.

She shrugged and didn't reply. She spent the rest of the meal in relative silence, listening to Cas and Dean talk about how work should quieten down now that the pressure of the past few weeks was over.

Cas left to go to the bathroom while dessert heated up in the oven. Dean was worried about being left alone with Claire - she didn't seem to like him much. What had he done?

She glanced up at him as soon as Cas left the room. Slowly her eyes reached his and Dean realised that although she'd inherited her mother's blonde hair, her eyes were definitely Cas's.

"Do you like my dad?" She asked him quietly.

He started at the directness of the question, especially as it was the first thing she'd ever asked him. But he had to answer truthfully. "Yes I do. He's one of my best friends."

She exhaled. "He likes you too." Her gaze turned shy again. "He was so worried about you coming here." She played with her spoon. "He thought you might not like us. Or me."

Dean was speechless. "I don't know you well enough yet to dislike you," was his only answer.

She smiled at that. "I worry about him," her eyes turned sad. "He thinks I don't know, but I do. Its my fault he never does anything."

"Claire..."

"And he never brings anyone home." She frowned. "My friend's dad is by himself and he meets people all the time. But daddy... Its my fault." She wasn't giving Dean enough time to jump in and tell her that it wasn't true. Because it was, wasn't it? And he couldn't lie to her. "I was so happy when he told me you were coming. But then..." she trailed off. "Then I was worried that you might not like us and then you'd never come back and daddy would be all alone again."

She was far too intuitive for a seven year old. Dean had never met anyone like her. But then he'd never spent much time round kids. Were they all this grown up?

Cas came back into the room then and Claire looked away from Dean and drank some of her lemonade. Her eyes widened. "Its so yummy."

Dean smiled. Although Cas remained looking anxious, his shoulders did relax slightly.

Claire looked up at her dad. "Dean does like us, daddy."

Cas's mouth dropped open into an "o" of surprise. He was speechless. Dean felt his own cheeks warm slightly, but he didn't want to make it worse by turning away. Cas cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair. "Um..."

"Dean, do you like ice cream?" Claire asked in complete seriousness, interrupting her dad's awkward silence.

He smiled with relief. "I guess so."

She nodded, and just like that it seemed that he'd been approved of and accepted. "Daddy, can we have ice cream please?"

"Sure thing, sweetheart." He exhaled and went to the freezer. Claire smiled happily.

They had cherry pie for dessert and Cas tried to hide his grin at Dean's obvious happiness. He would have been lying if he said that he hadn't picked cherry pie on purpose - he knew Dean's pie preferences by now. Apple pie was for cheering him up. Pecan pie was for when he wanted to treat himself. But cherry pie - that was for when he was rewarding himself.

Dean caught Cas staring at him and wondered if Cas realised the significance of the pie he'd chosen. He felt himself blush as Cas smiled at him, showing those gorgeous teeth for the first time in a long while. When had Dean seen Cas smile like that recently?

Claire finished her portion quickly and sat quietly. Cas opened the box of chocolates and passed them over to her. She frowned at the choices and took one after serious deliberation. From the way her eyes widened, it had been a good choice. Dean smiled at her delight and she offered him a shy smile in return. She waited for them to have a chocolate each before saying "can I do go my art now please?"

Cas took her bowl and ruffled her blonde hair lovingly. "Of course you can. Do you want to do it in here?"

She considered that, chewing her bottom lip. "Can I go to my room and do it?"

"'Course, sweetheart. Just come down or call if you need anything, okay?"

She gathered her stuff into her arms and ran upstairs.

Dean watched her leave. "She's a nice kid."

Cas sighed. "She's lonely. And withdrawn. I don't know what to do with her."

"You love her a lot." It was a statement, not a question.

Cas's gaze softened. "I do. More than anyone else I've ever loved."

Dean wanted to ask "more than Amelia?" but it didn't seem appropriate. Not tonight. Maybe not ever.

"So a celebration?" Cas asked. "Not what you were expecting, huh?"

"It was so much better than going to some overpriced bar, Cas." He spoke sincerely. Despite the awkwardness, he'd enjoyed himself immensely.

"Um," Cas blushed again. "Thank you, I guess."

"You know, we've never talked like this," Dean said because it was suddenly on his mind.

"You mean not about work or Claire?" Cas smiled to take the sting off his words as he poured Dean another glass of lemonade. "I guess we haven't."

Dean didn't want to bring up what Claire had said, didn't want to make Cas uncomfortable. So instead he said "do you mind? Looking after Claire, sacrificing everything for her?"

Cas smiled humourlessly. "I thought we were talking about other things."

Dean looked down. "Sorry. I don't want to upset you -"

"Don't worry about it," Cas voice was softer. "You're the one person who's ever cared to ask, it just took me by surprise."

"Oh," Dean didn't know what to say to that.

Cas took a drink and sighed. "No, I don't mind. Not at all. She'll everything I have now, and I'm all she's got. But..." he rubbed his eyes. "Sometimes its hard. Not because of Claire, never her. But doing everything yourself, being the sole carer for someone - its not easy. Sometimes I just wish I had someone to help me." His eyes were sparkling slightly and Dean felt suddenly guilty. Some celebration. He shouldn't have brought it up.

"Cas, I'm sorry. We don't have to talk about it." He smoothed down the table cloth, trying to find something else to talk about. But he looked up. "People would help, you know. People do care."

Cas laughed. "Oh, they don't. Because everyone is struggling for something at the moment. Why should it be any different for me?"

"I'd help," the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. He saw Cas's shock, and then it softened into something else.

It wasn't that Dean didn't mean the words. He did. But he didn't want to impose himself on their family, or make Cas feel like he was pitying him, or worse, that Cas would agree but Claire would dislike him. And this was all too much, too soon. He'd only met Claire once. Only spent time with Cas outside work once.

"You would?" Cas's reply was hesitant. "I - I don't know what to say to that."

"I'm sorry." Why was Dean apologising so much? Because he kept screwing up.

"No, don't. Never apologise for saying that. You -" Cas broke off. "Thank you."

"If there's anything I can do, Cas, please tell me. And I'll try, as best as I can." As a friend. He'd do this for Cas as his friend.

Cas smiled but his eyes were serious. He held out his glass. "Thank you, Dean."

Dean clinked his glass against Cas's. "Any time." They drank in silence for a moment.

"So, besides spreadsheets and cheap disgusting coffee, what do you like?" Dean asked.

Cas laughed, properly for the first time that evening, or possibly ever. It was such a glorious sound and Dean loved how it made his mouth into the most genuine and beautiful smile he'd ever seen. "I don't like the coffee at work, I just put up with it." Dean started to interrupt, but Cas cut him off. "Besides, is there any more to you than pie?"

Dean joined in Cas's laughter. "Rock music. And cars."

"Cars?" Cas scrunched his nose in confusion.

"I wanted to be a mechanic when I was younger," Dean explained. "And then I found the joy of business and spreadsheets and never looked back." He joked about it, because he'd got over his dream years ago.

"Well, you're good at business stuff." Cas's compliment warmed him because it was stated as if it was obvious. "Any chance of a promotion soon?"

Dean nearly spluttered on his drink. "A promotion? I don't think so."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Cas was grinning at Dean's shocked expression. "You've been here long enough for a promotion now, and besides, they love you."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Where's your promotion, then?" He cut across Cas's answer. "I thought we weren't meant to be talking about work."

"Right," Cas cast around for another topic of conversation. "Star Trek or Star Wars?"

"Star Wars hands down." Dean replied. "You?"

"Star Trek. No comparison."

"Sorry but Star Wars is clearly superior -"

"But at least Star Trek knows when to recast when it makes more films -"

"But the original cast are always so much better -"

After several minutes of heated debate, Dean realised that Cas was trying to hide a grin. He was unable to finish his point about the lack of consistent villains in Star Trek and ended up breaking off, trying not to laugh. "Dammit Cas." He laughed.

Cas faked innocence. "What?" His grin grew. "Are you admitting defeat?"

"Never," but Dean was unable to put together another sentence. He'd got the giggles and Cas watched him amused as he struggled to say anything else. He joined in Dean's uncontrollably laughter and realised as he watched the man opposite him nearly cry with laughter at something that wasn't remotely funny that he hadn't been this happy for years.

\--

Around eight o'clock, Dean started to think that he'd better leave soon. He didn't want to keep Claire up too late, despite the fact that she hadn't come down from her room after she'd left.

Cas wanted Dean to take the chocolates home with him but Dean refused. They managed to make their way to the hallway and Cas passed Dean his coat, but they didn't stop talking long enough for Dean to leave. He didn't want to leave. He'd found the loving and funny side of Cas and he didn't want to lose that. He didn't want to go to work on Monday morning and find out that it was all back to the way it used to be. Which had been good, but this was so much better.

Claire ran down the stairs just as Dean finally put his coat on properly and started to open the door. She was holding something in her hand and she held it up to Dean. He frowned with confusion and then crouched down so they were almost the same height. She was biting her lip nervously. "I drew this for you."

He took it, barely breathing. He studied the picture, almost overcome with emotion. She'd draw the impala. And although it was the developing sloppy style of a seven year old, Dean had never seen anything as beautiful.

"Thank you so much." He breathed out. "Its beautiful."

She smiled at him properly for the first time. "Your car is pretty."

"She is," Dean agreed. "But your drawing of her is prettier."

Claire's cheeks flushed slightly from the praise and she stepped back slightly, letting Dean stand up. Dean met Cas's gaze, who was watching him with a look of wonder and almost awe. He smiled at both of them. "I've had a wonderful time tonight. Thank you so much. For everything."

They called goodnight to him as he got into his car, carefully placing the drawing on the passenger seat.

"Come again soon!" Claire called out as he drove off with the window down. He nearly crashed the car because he was smiling so much.

Maybe Claire did like him after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean visits Cas and Claire again and helps Claire out with her reading homework

Monday morning came far too slowly for Dean’s liking. He went for a run on both Saturday and Sunday and was pleasantly surprised that he hadn’t slipped in his fitness that much. Still, his muscles did burn as he ran up the hill leading out of town. Maybe he should start walking to work every morning, it was only twenty minutes…

Running normally cleared his mind, but it wasn’t working like that. He played Friday night over and over in his head, trying to work out exactly what he’d done to get Claire to like him. Talking about her dad, had that been it? Or had it genuinely been that he liked ice cream? He didn’t understand kids’ minds enough to work it out.

The drawing had sat on his counter in his flat’s kitchen all of Saturday until he decided he needed to do something with it.

Cas came to the open door of Dean’s office, ready to say something witty that would take them back to Friday night. Then he saw what Dean had done and he was speechless with surprise.  
Dean glanced up from his desk and smiled brightly. “Morning! Does it look straight in the frame? I can’t quite tell.”

“Y-yes it looks fine to me,” Cas stuttered out in surprise.

“Good.” Dean leaned back to admire his handiwork. He was glad he’d picked the black frame as it went well with the black and grey of the impala. He looked back up at Cas who was watching him in astonishment.

“I didn’t want to leave it at home,” Dean explained, suddenly worried he’d done the wrong thing. “I spend much more of my day here, so I thought -” he broke off. He cursed himself - he’d thought they were past this awkwardness.

“Dean, I -” Cas ran a hand through his hair. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

Dean flushed at the praise. “Did you have a good weekend?” he asked.

Cas smiled warmly and leaned against Dean’s desk. “Claire’s already begging me to ask you to come round again.”

“She is?”

“You might not have realised it, but Claire was amazingly outgoing and - well, I guess “not shy” on Friday. She warmed to you extremely quickly.” He paused and then went on. “It surprised me.”

“Really?” Dean’s voice was soft.

Cas nodded. “It took Claire two days to speak more than one word to her aunt.” He shrugged at Dean’s shocked silence. “Like I said, she’s difficult sometimes.”

“She’s just a kid,” Dean said softly.

“So when are you coming round next?”

Dean’s eyes widened. “Is that an open invitation?”

Cas grinned. “I guess so. Although it will have to be pretty soon, otherwise Claire might kill me.”

That startled a laugh out of Dean. “Well I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.” He smiled. “Whenever you want me. Ask Claire and that’s when I’ll come.”

“Okay.” Cas nodded. He began to leave and then paused at the door. “Do you want to go and get lunch today? I mean, with me. You never finished you point about Princess Leia.”

Dean grinned. “I’d love to.”

-

The next day, Cas came in to tell Dean that he had to come over as soon as possible. He smiled. “And Claire wants proof that you’ve framed her drawing because she thinks I’m making it up.”

“Really? Is she bothered by it? I can -“

“She’s amazed,” Cas interrupted him. “Which is why she doesn’t believe me.”

Dean glanced at his calendar above his desk. He was free every night, he knew that, but he did need to get back into running and the gym. Or did he…

“How about I come over in the afternoon instead of the evening,” Dean suggested. “Then you don’t have to worry about dinner.”

“I don’t mind doing dinner -“

“But its not fair on you, you’ve already made me dinner once, its my turn now -“

“Dean, I don’t mind.”

Dean frowned. But he did. He minded that he wasn’t doing anything for Cas and Claire in return for them letting him into their lives, in whatever small a way.

“I don’t want to mess Claire’s week up,” he said instead. “She’ll have homework surely, and school is tiring -“

Cas huffed a laugh. “She’ll welcome the excuse not to do anything. Please, Dean.”

He knew Cas would think he was making a big fuss. Maybe he was. But he knew what he felt. “I’ll come over at 5, then. Straight after work.”

Cas’s face flooded with relief. “Thank you so much.”

Dean smiled but he tried to be serious. “Please don’t make a big effort over dinner,” he pleaded gently.

Cas grinned. “Who said I was going to?” He began to leave before Dean could retort, his surprise at Cas’s joke rendering him speechless. “Are we going for lunch today?”

Dean nodded speechlessly. Cas’s gorgeous grin didn’t help either. “Great. We can work out when you’re coming round then - tonight or tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!”Dean yelled after Cas’s disappearing back. He heard a low chuckle and couldn’t fight the grin on his face. Hell, he was so screwed. But he didn’t mind one bit.

-

Cas left to get Claire at 5pm, but Dean was still working when he came and leant on the doorframe hesitantly.

“I’ve just got this to finish,” Dean gestured at the paper spread across his desk.

Cas nodded. “I’ll see you soon, then?” he asked hesitantly, as if he expected Dean to suddenly change his mind.

Dean smiled, trying to be reassuring. “As soon as I’m done.”

-  
He was at Cas’s house by 5:30pm. He hadn’t changed this time, but he didn’t think that Cas had been expecting him to - and Claire hopefully wouldn’t mind. Still, he took his tie off, undid his top button on his shirt and left his suit jacket in the car.

He’d barely rung the doorbell when the door was pulled open. Cas smiled at him. “You got it all finished then.”

“Eventually,” Dean replied. “Sometimes I wonder whether what I learnt in my business degree actually taught me how to do anything.”

Before Cas could respond, a tiny figure appeared next to him.

“Hi Dean,” she said shyly, but her smile was friendly.

“Hey Claire,” Dean smiled back. “Good day at school?”

She frowned. “It was okay. Miss Braeden gave us homework though.”

“Oh no!” Cas smiled at Dean’s genuine horror.

“Its only a bit of reading,” Cas kissed the top of Claire’s head.

She huffed adorably. “But Daddy, you said I could draw tonight, but now I have to read and reading takes ages.”

Cas glanced at Dean. “Maybe Dean could help you with it? If you don’t mind, of course,” he added.

Claire’s enthusiasm was undeniable. “Would you? Would you really?”

Dean smiled. “Sure! I’m not sure how good I’ll be thought - you might have to teach me!”

Claire giggled and took hold of Dean’s hand, leading him into the living room. Dean hadn’t been in here yet. It was a pretty room, even though the blue sofas didn’t really match the red curtains - but Dean didn’t mind one bit.

Claire handed him her reading book, and Dean suddenly had a moment where he was nine years old again, teaching Sam how to read properly.

“You want to read to me?” he asked gently as he sat down on the sofa next to her.

She nodded and then hesitated. “You won’t laugh if I get something wrong?”

“Why would I do that?” he tried to be gentle but he was shocked.

She sighed. “Some of the boys at school tease me about it. Because I don’t read as well as they do.”

“Well I bet they can’t draw as well as you do.” Claire’s face lit up from his praise. “And they’re probably just doing it to wind you up anyway.”

“That’s what daddy says.”

“He’s probably right. He is quite clever, you know.”

Claire giggled, and then opened her book.

Her reading wasn't as bad as she’d led Dean to believe. She did stumble over a few words, but that was to be expected, especially as they were longer and more difficult. She’d been more hesitant at the start, and had kept glancing up at him to check that he wasn’t laughing at her. Once she’d got over that, she was much more confident and neither of them noticed Cas coming and standing in the doorway to watch them quietly.

Claire was struggling with one particular word, and Dean helped her break it down and sound it out. She nodded seriously and repeated it over and over again.

"If you say it too many times it won't sound like a real word anymore," Cas teased, coming into the room properly. He was carrying a tray of coffee, two mugs, a glass of milk for Claire and a plate of biscuits. He placed them on the small coffee table and sat down on the other side of Claire. He smiled at Dean over Claire's head. "The coffee needs a few more minutes.

Claire crossed her legs on the sofa, the book falling from her hands onto the soft cushions. “Daddy, can I go and draw now?”

He ruffled her hair. “You haven’t finished your reading have you?”

She sighed. “No. But I want to draw while Dean’s here. Please?”

Cas met Dean’s gaze and smiled. “What does Dean want to do? He’s the guest.”

“Cas -” Dean began to protest, but Claire had turned to him, her eyes pleading. He thought for a moment. “How about we have something to eat and drink and you can finish reading and then you can draw?”

She sighed. “Okay.” Cas mouthed “thank you” over her head. Dean fought a smile.

“You’ve only got five pages to go,” Dean tried to encourage her. Even though she huffed again, it must have worked because she picked up the book and began reading again. Cas and Dean both read over her shoulder, taking turns to prompt her or correct something. But after a while, Cas stopped and ended up watching Dean. Not in a creepy way, but just marvelling at how natural he was with his daughter. His smile, which had formed unconsciously as he listened to Claire read, the gentleness in his voice when he told her how to say something, the way he somehow made correcting her seem positive, like he was lifting her up rather than forcing her down with criticism. His eyes - Cas had always been fascinated by Dean’s eyes, but that evening they shone with pride and affection - how had Claire and Dean only met once before? They were so easy with each other. Cas would have felt jealous if he wasn’t so happy.  
When Claire had nearly finished, Cas got up and began pouring the coffee. He waited until Claire had read the last sentence and Dean had praised her for how well her reading had gone before passing Dean a mug of coffee. He didn’t have to ask about how he took it - they’d bought each other coffee enough times to know each others’ preferences. After passing Claire her milk, he placed the biscuits on the sofa in front of her and gestured for them both to dig in. 

“Do you know what you’re going to draw?” Dean asked her, dunking his biscuit in his coffee.

She watched the action before replying. “I don’t know. I like flowers and trees…” she trailed off.

“You’re going to be an artist, right Claire bear?” Cas kissed her hair as he leaned over to take another biscuit.

She flushed and looked down. “Maybe.”

Dean thought she was probably too young for career advice but he said it anyway. “You should do something you enjoy. No matter what it is.”

“Do you enjoy your work?” She asked both of them.

“Some of it,” Cas smiled at Dean and Dean’s heart may have stuttered with affection.

“Its not the worst job in the world,” Dean agreed. “But its probably not what I would have chosen if I could have done anything.”

“Dean was going to be a mechanic,” Cas explained to a confused Claire.

“Oh! With cars? Is that why yours is so pretty?”

“Something like that,” he grinned. “She was scrap when I bought her, but I built her up one summer - and I’ve never needed another car.”

“So modest,” Cas teased, but Dean could tell he was impressed. Dean blushed from Cas’s expression and looked down. Claire broke the slight awkwardness by finishing her milk and wordlessly pleading her dad to let her get her art things. Cas laughed softly and told her that they’d all move through to the kitchen because then they could control the mess better. Claire hummed happily and tugged on Dean’s shirt sleeve, gently pulling him through to the kitchen. Dean didn’t mind being gently manhandled by a seven year old - he’d spent enough years of having Sam drag him round that he had no issues with Claire.

Dean spent the next hour watching Claire draw various different scenes using coloured pencils. He was put to task sharpening pencils when she needed them, and for giving advice on what colour to use for a certain section. She drew a forest, a lake and a park, and although Dean wasn’t an artist, they looked pretty good to him considering she was only seven.

Cas did the washing up and started making dinner - Dean offered to help but he was waved away. However, Cas did eventually let him cut potatoes and vegetables up, which considerably reduced the time to make dinner. They all sat down and ate like the previous time, although the conversation was much less awkward. Claire chatted about school and her teacher and the project that they were doing at the moment on diffferent animals from around the world. There was a trip to the zoo coming up and she simply couldn't wait. Dean found her enthusiasm contagious and he couldn't help smiling all the way through dinner.

He left just after 7:30, because as much as he wanted to stay, Claire had school the next day and he really needed to get some stuff done at home. Once he was back in his small apartment, he was suddenly struck with how quiet it was. It was nice enough, and it was definitely much tidier than Cas and Claire's house - but did it even look lived in? It didn't have the vibrant mess of life that their house did, and suddenly he didn't understand how he'd managed to live there alone all those years.

He put the radio on in an attempt to fill the silence and tried to think of ways to make his apartment look actually lived in. It wasn't that he didn't like mess, it was more that he enjoyed the theraputic feeling of cleaning and the satisfaction afterwards. He didn't really know what to do about it. When he went to bed that night, he tried not to focus on how quiet his flat was, but it wasn't helped by the blue eyes and the smile that appeared whenever he closed his eyes.

The only thing that got him through the night and meant that he could get some hours of sleep was the thought of seeing those gorgeous blue eyes the following day.


	4. Chapter 4

Cas came into work a few weeks later looking extremely agitated. Dean was worried and surprised - Cas has been a lot calmer and happier recently, he was smiling and talking to other people more, although he saved the majority of his time for Dean.

“What’s wrong?” Dean tried to cast his mind back over the past week. It had been good, hadn’t it? He’d been over to their house again on Saturday and they’d watched one of Claire’s many Disney films - because despite not liking pink, it didn’t stop her from being obsessed with animation films. Hadn’t Cas been happy then?

Cas ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “I messed up my dates on the holiday rota. I can swap but it means I have to work late this week, and –”

“Woah, calm down.” Dean stood up and gripped Cas’s sleeve firmly but in an attempt to be comforting. “You’re worried about Claire, right? I’m sure she’d rather have you for three weeks in the summer even if it means that you have to work late now.”

“Yes, but I promised her –”

“She’ll understand. She’s not a difficult kid.”

Cas bit his lip. “I just haven’t got anything planned for her this week and she hates after school clubs, I can’t leave her in them even later.” He glanced up into Dean’s eyes nervously. “Don’t feel like you have to say yes, I know its a lot to ask, but would you mind looking after her? You’ll be finishing a lot earlier than I will, and well she likes you, she wouldn’t give you any trouble…” he trailed off uncertain. 

“You sure? It’s a big responsibility you’re offering me here,” he’d looked after Sam, but Sam was his brother - it would be completely different to looking after Claire. Or would it?

“I wouldn’t ask anyone else,” Cas said softly. “But I understand if -“

“What time do you normally pick her up, five?” Dean cut in.

Cas’s face relaxed with relief. “You’ll do it? Thank you so much, how can I repay you -“

“Cas,” Dean squeezed his forearm in an attempt to be reassuring. “You don’t need to do anything, okay? I’m happy to do this - I’m honoured.” Cas huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “How many people have you let into your and Claire’s life?” Dean demanded. “I’m honoured to be one of them.”

“The only one,” Cas murmured, before saying louder “you’re the only one, Dean.”

He was speechless. The only person? He knew they didn’t have anyone else from work, but from anything else? He was the only one?

There was silence for a moment. Then Dean said gently “do you think you should ring school up and tell them that someone else is collecting Claire? So they don’t freak out.”

“Yeah,” Cas exhaled. “Good idea. I’ll ring them now.”

-

Dean poked his head round Cas’s door just before 5pm. “I’m going now,” he felt nerves curling in his gut. “Do you know when you’ll get home?” They’d agreed that Dean would take Claire back to her and Cas’s house rather than taking her to Dean’s. It made much more sense, and also it saved Claire getting worried and nervous about being in someone else’s house.

Cas smiled although he looked as nervous as Dean felt. “I’ll be home at seven hopefully. You’re okay with that -“

“Course I am, don’t worry. I’ll see you soon.” He gave Cas one finally reassuring smile and left.

The drive to Claire’s school was one of the most nerve wracking ten minute periods of Dean’s life. Pulling into the school’s almost deserted car park, he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in agitation. This was the right place, wasn’t it?

He was so nervous as he went through the playground gate and followed the path round to where the reception was meant to be. The door was open so he stepped inside and ended up in a small foyer. The lady in the office behind the screen looked up and smiled. “How may I help?”

“Hi, um, I’m Dean Winchester, I’m meant to be collecting Claire Novak?” He had no idea how any of this stuff worked.

She frowned only slightly but it was enough to make Dean panic. “Did Mr Novak send you?”

“Yeah, he has to work late. He said he’d ring, but –”

She smiled. “Don’t worry, Mr Winchester, he did. It’s just as a safeguarding policy, would you mind filling a form in? Once Mr Novak signs it, there’ll be no problem with you collecting Claire in the future.”

“It’s all this week, I don’t know when Cas will get in –”

“Well, I can ring him up in the meantime and then he can sign it when he next collects her.”

Dean nodded and began filling in the form. He tried to be as quick as possible, knowing that Claire was waiting for him so they could go home. But he hesitated over “relation to the child.”

“Um,” he said eloquently.

The lady glanced over. “Yes, we need to update them really. I think you can tick “other” and write “family friend”.” She smiled but her eyes were questioning. Dean flushed slightly. Cas wasn’t his boyfriend.

He signed it and passed it over. She looked through. “Excellent. Sorry you had to do that, but we have to keep them safe.”

“Not at all, I completely understand.”

She opened the door into the main school building for him. The walls were covered with projects, photos and posters, and he felt like his eyes were being assaulted by colour.  
They went to the classroom at the end of the corridor. The chatter of young kids rose up as they got nearer, but Dean couldn’t make out Claire’s voice among them.  
There were about twenty children in the room, ranging from the age of five to eleven. He couldn’t spot Claire - where was she?

The receptionist introduced him to Miss Braeden, a woman of about his age, maybe slightly younger. Dean was surprised at how young she was - weren’t teachers meant to be old? He shook her hand and she smiled. “Claire doesn’t stop talking about you, you know.”

He felt his cheeks flush slightly. “Really? I doubt that, I mean -“

“Oh no, trust me. Anyway, it’s nice to see her happy. I’ll go and fetch her for you.”

He waited at the door as Miss Braeden went to find Claire. Dean finally spotted her - she was sat near the back of the room with a huge box with of pencils and was drawing like her life depended on it. Dean smiled - he should have known she’d be drawing.  
Miss Braeden crouched down next to her and said something to her. Claire looked up and saw him, a beaming smile lighting up her face. She hurriedly put away her pencils and gathered her paper into a messy pile before running to him.

She threw her arms around his waist. He was shocked - they’d never hugged before. But after a moment’s hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her. It didn’t last long though because he pulled back and crouched down. “Hey Claire, good day?”

She made a face. “It was okay. Miss Braeden gave us homework again though.”

“It’s just a bit of maths,” her teacher said as she joined them carrying Claire’s coat and her small school bag.

Claire pouted and Dean smiled. “We’ll have a look at it when we get home, okay?”

“Okay,” she sighed. Miss Braeden smiled at Dean over Claire’s head as Dean helped Claire get her coat on.

“Do you want me to show you out, Mr Winchester?”

“Please, I’ll probably just get lost.”

Dean carried Claire’s schoolbag and she clutched her drawings in her hands. She kept glancing up at him and he started to get anxious. “Everything okay?” he asked.

She nodded wordlessly but offered him a small smile.

“Trying to work out how to let you off your homework?” he teased.

She giggled. “No!”

“Well that’s alright then! Wouldn’t want your dad to get upset with us, would we?”

She tugged at his sleeve. “But he wouldn’t have to know.” She pleaded.

“He knows everything though, your dad. He’d find out.”

“Oh.” Her bottom lip pouted.

They were shown out, and Miss Braeden waved to Claire before going back to her classroom.

Apparently kids over the age of six didn’t need a car seat but Dean was still nervous when he got Claire to his car. What if he got pulled over by the cops?  
Claire’s gasp of amazement distracted him enough. “She’s so pretty!” She ran up to the impala but suddenly stopped, not wanting to touch without Dean’s permission.

Dean’s joy bubbled out in a laugh. “She’s not going to bite.”

Claire ran her hand along the side, marvelling at the colours in the shimmering paintwork. “Daddy’s car is boring compared to yours.”

Dean grinned. “Well it’s not his fault he doesn’t have as good a taste in cars, is it?”

She giggled as he opened the door for her. He checked and then double checked her seatbelt before climbing into the front. This was possibly the most nerve wracking thing he’d ever done. How fast could he drive and keep Claire safe at the same time?

“You okay, Claire?” He asked, glancing at her in his rear view mirror. She beamed at him and nodded.

He pulled out into the road and took the quietest route to Cas’s house. After checking that the road they were driving on was completely clear, he asked her how her day had gone.

She began babbling about how they’d done maths and then a spelling test (which had been hard, but she’d done really well in anyway - Dean made sure to congratulate her enthusiastically) and then at lunch she’d played with Krissy (she wasn’t as completely lonely as Cas thought then) before they’d gone inside and read about different animals that lived in rainforests. By the time she’d finished recounting her whole day to him they’d arrived at her house. Dean double checked that the car was properly parked and safe before he helped Claire out.

Cas had given Dean his house keys - apparently there was a spare set in the house and Cas was going to find it later so that they didn’t have to keep exchanging keys every day.  
Claire was bouncing on her feet slightly and Dean gave her a look of bemusement before opening the door. She ran inside and dropped her bag into the box by the door before sitting on the bottom step and taking her shoes off. Dean hesitated in the doorway, unsure of what to do. He took a deep breath and closed it behind him, slipping his shoes off.

“Dean, do I have to do homework now?”

He let out a small laugh. “I don’t want to make you, but I think you probably should. We don’t want your daddy thinking I’m a bad influence.”

“But Dean,” she pleaded.

“How about you do a bit and then you can draw and then you do a bit more?”

She sighed. “Oh… okay…”

“It won’t be that bad,” he tried to comfort her. “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”

She jumped up. “Daddy bought cake yesterday.”

She led him into the kitchen and pointed at a tin on the top of the kitchen counter. Dean cut a piece of cherry cake for her and then instinctively cut it into smaller pieces, just as he’d always done for Sam when he was little. 

She didn’t say anything about it but hummed quietly, sliding into her seat at the table. He poured her a glass of milk too, and sat down opposite her. 

She glanced up at him. “Aren’t you hungry?” 

“Not at the moment,” he replied, but that wasn’t good enough for Claire because she pushed her plate towards him. 

“Its yummy,” she told him. “And you like cherries.” 

He smiled at that and took a tiny piece. “You’re right, it is yummy.” 

“Told you,” she said slightly smugly. “Daddy always has coffee when he comes home.” She wrinkled her nose. “Does it taste nice?” 

“I think it’s one of those things that gets better as you get older.” 

“Oh,” she frowned in thought. 

Dean decided that he’d wait for Cas to get home before he made any coffee - he really didn’t need any yet. 

Once Claire had finished her cake, Dean got her schoolbag from the hallway and they started doing her maths homework. She had to learn times tables and then answer the questions at the bottom of the sheet. It didn’t take her too long, although she struggled with seven multiplied by eight – although didn’t everyone? Dean remembered that Sam had always forgotten that one. He wondered why it was so difficult. Perhaps he should ask Miss Braeden.

Claire began to get quicker as she reached the last few questions and Dean smiled. It was wonderful that she loved art so much, that she had something that gave her so much joy and excitement.

She wrote down a final “24” and looked up at him. “Now can I draw? Please?”

He smiled. “Sure honey.” Honey? Where had that come from? Was it okay? Thankfully, Claire didn’t seem to mind though; in fact she smiled brightly up at him and went to get her art stuff. She brought out paper and a huge box of colouring pencils.

“What you going to draw today, then?” Dean asked her, clearing a space on the table for her.

“Miss Braeden showed us pictures of tigers today. They’re really cool.”

“Yeah? Don’t you think they’re scary?”

She laughed. “Not really. They’re just big cats.”

“Do they meow?”

“No!” She giggled. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, I think you should ask Miss Braeden that tomorrow, just to be sure.”

She began drawing an outline in pencil, and at her request Dean started searching through the box of pencils for oranges, whites, blacks and browns.

When she drew, she didn’t talk. She concentrated so much on what she was doing that there wasn’t any opportunity for her to say anything. Dean didn’t try and make conversation with her but just sat and watched as her drawing developed into something that resembled a tiger.

She frowned at it and started drawing another one, before moving onto her next animal: lions. They required yellow too, so Dean was set the task of finding yellow pencils.

It was nearly six o’clock and Dean was starting to think that Claire would need dinner soon. He didn’t know when Cas would be home either, but he doubted that he’d want to come home and have to cook.

Dean got up and began looking through the cupboards and the fridge for things that he could make a meal out of. He was quite inventive when it came to food and cooking, but he did need a few basics.

He found pasta, and then chicken and vegetables in the fridge.

“These look okay to you for dinner?” He asked Claire, who nodded.

“Daddy likes chicken.”

“He does?” Dean was somehow surprised by that statement. But then, he didn’t really know that much about Cas’s food preferences – the places they went for lunch often didn’t have much choice.

Claire nodded. “He likes burgers too, but they’re too unhealthy so we don’t have them very often.”

“Oh.” Dean sorted that away into his “information about Cas” box. “Do you like them?”

She frowned. “I guess. Some of them are yummy.”

Dean smiled at that. “Well maybe we should take your dad out for burgers sometime, hmm?”

Claire’s smile was radiant. “Really? Would you do that?”

Dean nodded, smiling. “I’ll talk to him about it later, then.”

He began chopping up the chicken and left it to cook in the pan while he moved onto the vegetables. He’d do the pasta when Claire got hungry or Cas got home – he didn’t know whether they’d all be eating all together or not. He said he’d be home at seven, but it was only twenty past six...

“Claire, do you want to wait for your dad or eat when this is ready?” He asked because he didn’t know what else to do.

She shrugged. “I’m okay.”

He nodded, still unsure of what to do. He didn’t want Cas to come home and think that he’d been starving Claire. But if she didn’t want to eat, what could he do?

At twenty to seven, everything except the pasta was done, so he decided to put it on to cook, and then they could eat as soon as Cas got home.

He began setting the table around her, not wanting to disrupt her drawing.

“Dean, can I have juice?”

“Does your dad let you have juice?” He didn’t want to do something wrong.

She nodded. “I had milk this morning, so I haven’t had any today. Promise.”

He smiled. “I believe you, don’t worry.” He took the apple juice out of the fridge and poured her a glass.

He was just finishing stirring the chicken and vegetables into the cooked pasta, and adding some grate cheese when the doorbell rang. Dean ran through and opened it. Cas was looking tired, but he smiled at Dean. “You got through the Spanish Inquisition then.”

“What?” Dean wondered if Cas’s brain was addled.

Cas laughed as he took his coat off. “The receptionist. She’s lovely, but she can be a bit fierce.”

“Oh.” Dean’s head scrambled. “I thought they all seemed nice.”

“Well clearly they –” He broke off. “Did you make dinner?”

Dean was suddenly worried he’d done something wrong. “Yes. Just because I thought you were going to be back late, and Claire needed something to eat, so –”

“You didn’t have to.” Cas said softly.

“I know, but I didn’t want you to have to cook when you got home.”

Cas suddenly hugged him. Dean froze and then hugged back.

“You’re amazing. I don’t know how, or why, but you are. Thank you.” Cas let go of him just as Claire ran through.

“Hi daddy.” She threw her arms round his waist, just as she had with Dean earlier. Clearly Monday was Dean’s “hugs from the Novaks” day.

“Hey Claire bear. Was school good?”

“Miss Braeden gave us homework.”

“Oh?”

“Dean helped me do it though.”

Cas smiled at Dean over his daughter’s head. “Should I check it in case he got something wrong?”

Claire giggled and shook her head.

“No? I agree with you, Dean’s too clever to get stuff wrong.”

Dean flushed at the compliment. “I don’t –”

“If dinner is as delicious as it smells you won’t be able to disprove that, Dean Winchester.” Cas said, and Dean realised that he was teasing him. Yet another side of Cas for Dean to mull over.

Claire dragged her dad into the kitchen and sat him down at the table, but it wasn’t long until he was stood up again to help Dean with plates. Dean was suddenly very nervous. What if it tasted horrible?

“It looks amazing,” Cas murmured to him.

Dean smiled. “Claire said you liked chicken.”

Cas’s eyes widened. “Of course! It’s delicious! Who doesn’t like chicken?”

Dean laughed. “I see she was right then.”

Cas took Claire’s plate and then Dean brought Cas’s and his own. Claire added more cheese to hers and dug in. Cas smiled at Dean before starting to eat. Within two mouthfuls, he’d decided that Dean Winchester was a god of cooking.

“Is it okay?” Dean asked nervously. Father and daughter nodded in unison, before Cas said “it’s delicious. Thank you so much.”

Dean brought the pan to the table in case anyone wanted more – Claire was full, but Cas had another large spoonful, and Dean had to keep him company by having more. Despite its simplicity, it was surprising good.

They had cherry cake for pudding, and then Cas made coffee. Dean was glad – Claire wasn’t difficult, but looking after a child for several hours did get tiring. He would be glad for something to wake him up.

Claire showed her dad her tiger and lion drawing before going to her room to find something she wanted to show Dean.

“How was work?” Dean asked as Cas poured coffee for them both.

Cas laughed humourlessly. “Long.”

“I’m sorry...” 

“It’s not your fault. And you’re helping me out so much with Claire and all this,” he gestured at their empty plates. “Are you going to be okay doing it all week?”

“I’ll have to be, won’t I?”

“Dean if it’s too much –”

“No it’s not, I promise. As long as Claire’s okay with it, it’s fine by me.”

Cas nodded, and stared down at his coffee cup. “She’s happier, you know. Because she has someone else who cares about her.”

“Cas –”

“I’m serious, Dean. Don’t try and downplay how important you are to her.” He coughed. “To us.”

Dean had nothing he could say to that except: “you’re important to me too.”

Claire ran back downstairs with a cat soft toy then and the moment between the two of them dissipated. It wasn’t over, Dean didn’t think that it ever could be over now, but it was much less intense. But they both knew that they were important to each other now, they’d spelled it out in words. And somehow, Dean felt less nervous, although he should have been terrified of what that could mean.

Claire distracted him by showing him the differences between tigers and cats, although he still teased her about how they were similar. She laughed at him for it, which made it okay – if she’d started to get upset he’d have stopped immediately. Cas began arguing that tigers weren’t as cool as lions and Claire began arguing with him instead, and Dean backed her up. Cas ended up smiling too much to be able to argue back, and he held his hands up in surrender. Dean watched as Claire celebrated her victory by dancing round the table giggling uncontrollably, which made him and Cas laugh too much to say anything else.

Yes, these two were definitely extremely important to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I struggled to write the developing relationship in this one, but hopefully it should be easier now.
> 
> Also: for people worrying about this not being all fluff - I struggle to write angst, so this will be 99.9% fluff - there's one incident that I'm planning that won't be as fluffy as the rest, but the angst won't be caused by Cas and Dean's relationship (or Dean and Claire's). Just thought I'd clear that up :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly a follow on from the previous chapter (there was meant to be a point to this chapter but I think it got lost in the self indulged fluff - hope you enjoy!)

They fell into a routine that week. Dean would leave work just before five, collect Claire from school, get her some food and something to drink when they got home, help her with her homework, make dinner while Claire drew or played with her toys or watched something on tv, before Cas would come home at seven and they’d all sit down and eat dinner together. Cas and Dean would sit and talk long after dinner and Dean would force himself to leave before nine (which was much later than Claire’s usual bedtime, but Cas let her stay up the first two nights, knowing that by the third she’d be falling asleep almost straight after dinner).

On Wednesday, she fell asleep on the sofa and Cas scooped her up in his arms, giving Dean a soft smile before carrying his sleeping child gently upstairs to bed. He came down ten minutes later and sat back down next to Dean, leaning back heavily into the cushions.

“You okay?” Dean asked.

“Better than I have been in a long time,” Cas gave him a soft, but warm smile. “You?”

“Same,” Dean exhaled.

Cas glanced down at his hands nervously. “You know about my family. But I, uh, don’t know much about yours.”

“There’s not much to say.”

“Your brother - Sam, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Is he your only sibling?”

Dean nodded.

“What does he do? Business, like you?”

Dean shook his head. “Sam wouldn’t survive in business - he’s a history teacher at a high school.” He glanced at Cas and saw that he he looked genuinely interested. “But what he really wants to do is mythology. He’s always been into all that ancient beliefs stuff, but there aren’t really any jobs in it except at university level.”

“So his degree is in…?”

“History and Mythology joint major.”

“Wow.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So, um,” Cas rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “You’re, uh, single right now?”

He huffed out a laugh. “Would I be here as often as I am if I wasn’t?”

Cas flushed. “No, but, I mean, people must ask you -“

Dean shrugged. “I haven’t had that in a long time.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“So, um, if someone were to ask you, on a, uh, date, or something, what would you say?”

Dean stared at Cas in amazement. “It would depend who was asking,” he replied softly.

“Dean, I -“

“Daddy?”

Cas turned to see Claire clutching her teddy bear, eyes wide with fear.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Cas asked, holding his arms out to her.

Her lip trembled. “I had a bad dream.” She allowed herself to be gathered up in his arms, and clung to him.

He rubbed her back and made soothing murmuring noises in her ear. She eventually began to relax and her whole body trembling stopped. She glanced at Dean and he smiled softly at her. She tried to smile back but her lip trembled.

“You want to talk about what happened?” Cas asked, but she shook her head quickly. “Okay, honey. Think you’ll be able to sleep soon?”

She bit her lip. “Can you put the music on?”

He nodded and glanced at Dean. “I’ll be back down in a minute.”

Dean nodded wordlessly and watched Cas carry his daughter out of the room for the second time that night. Cas must find it exhausting, he thought. He was tired from just looking after Claire for a few hours, let alone every moment of every single day.

No wonder Cas didn’t date. He didn’t have the time or energy.

Dean felt a warm thrill as he remembered their earlier conversation. Had Cas really been about to ask him on an actual date? They already at lunch together most days, and Dean was over at their house at least once a week, but none of it was explicitly romantic. They were just friends, right?

He loved Cas. He loved Claire too. They were the two people in his life that meant the most to him apart from Sam. And yes, he’d dated people before, but those relationships had been nothing like this.

He supposed that what people didn’t realise was that Cas and Claire were one entity really - you couldn’t try and arrange something with Cas without including Claire too, because he’d refuse to go. 

He glanced at the clock and was startled to see that it was nearly half past nine. It was time that he left, but Cas hadn’t come back down yet. He wondered what he should do - he couldn’t just leave, but was he allowed to wander around all of their house?

He went up the stairs as quietly as he could, and heard soft music from a room on the right of the staircase. The door was open, and the muted orange glow from a night light illuminated the room.  
Claire was cuddled up under her duvet with her teddy bear, and Cas was sat next to her, stroking her hair soothingly. Her eyelids were fluttering, but her gaze slipped to the doorway and she saw Dean. Her lips smiled almost involuntarily and it wasn’t long until her soft sleeping breathing filled the room.

Cas kissed her forehead and stood up quietly and as smoothly as he could without jolting the bed too much.

He saw Dean at the door and smiled, and Dean struggled not to notice how gorgeous Cas looked illuminated in the soft light, next to his sleeping child.

Cas stepped out of the room into the dark corridor.

Dean touched his arm and whispered. “I didn’t want to interrupt, but its getting late and I should probably go.”

Cas nodded and after a final look at his daughter went downstairs again. He passed Dean his coat and sat on the stairs as Dean slipped his shoes on.

“Dean?”

“Yes?” Dean looked up at Cas who was resting his chin on his hands.

“About what I was saying earlier…”

“Cas, you don’t -”

“Please let me finish,” he pleaded softly. When Dean was silent, he took a deep breath. “I’m scared. Of what could happen if you come into our lives even more, and then you decide to leave. I don’t want to hurt Claire like that.”

Dean nodded numbly. What was Cas trying to say? He didn’t want to see Dean ever again?

“But then, I don’t want to lose you now. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, to us, in a long long time. Claire’s happier, I’m happier - so I can’t push you away, not even if I wanted to.” He met Dean’s gaze and there was fear in his eyes. “I just thought we both needed to be honest about all this.”

“Of course. Of course we do,” Dean crossed to Cas and sat down on the stairs next to him. “So we take it slow. We don’t rush anything. We talk, we say what we like and what we don’t, what we’re comfortable with. Okay? We don’t have to do anything more than what we do now.”

Cas bit his lip. “But, I want more. This week, seeing you every evening, having you practically live here - it makes me happy, Dean.”

“I’m not ready for that yet, Cas.” Dean replied.

“I know, and I don’t think I am either. Because since Amelia, I mean, I’ve hardly had anyone over to our house. Family, that’s it. Because I was scared of Claire making friends and relationships and then having them taken away from her again.”

“And yourself?”

Cas took a deep breath. “Yeah, me as well.” He buried his face in his hands. Dean froze and then tentatively reached out and rested his hand on Cas’s shoulder, his arm draping across his back in some form of a hug. He felt Cas tense beneath him before he relaxed and leaned into Dean’s touch.

“We’ll work something out,” Dean told him. “And I’ll stick around for as long as you want me.”

Cas looked up at him. “Promise?”

Dean held his gaze. “I promise.”

-

When Cas got home on Friday, he opened the door and the smell of baking wafted through. He slipped his suit jacket and shoes off, smiling as he called out “I’m home!”

Claire ran through, her top covered in flour. “Daddy! We’re making cakes, look!”

“Oh I can see that!” He said, lifting her up, not caring about getting flour on his shirt - he could wash it that weekend.

Dean appeared then, grinning. His blue shirt was also dusted with flour, although not as bad as Claire’s. “We’re going to have dinner and then decorate them.”

“We are?” Cas asked, grinning.

“Dean took me to the shop,” Claire began babbling excitedly. "And we got the things for the cakes and then we got sprinkles and sugar flowers and jelly sweets and then we got icing –” she continued to give Cas a moment by moment commentary of her and Dean’s baking extravaganza as he carried her through to the kitchen.

Despite the amount of flour down both of them, the kitchen looked remarkably tidy. Cas had expected it to look like a cake bomb site.

“Wow!” The cooling cakes on the counter looked amazing in their multicoloured bun cases. Dean clearly knew how to bake because the tops were lovely golden brown, and besides, Cas didn’t think Dean would let them eat uncooked cakes.

Claire’s chatter broke for a moment. “Dean says he’s going to teach me how to make cookies too.”

Cas smiled at Dean with a look of utter amazement. How was this man real?

“Come on Claire, lets get your dad some dinner.” Dean grinned as he took the baked potatoes out of the oven, and Cas fetched the plates. Claire had wanted beans with her potato but Dean had heated up some Bolognese sauce he’d found in the freezer for Cas and himself. Claire happily mixed her potato, beans and cheese together creating a mushy mess, but she ate it so neither of them complained.

After dinner, Cas filled the dishwasher while Dean got the icing and decorations and Claire sat at the table humming happily. Dean swirled blobs of butter icing on top of the buns and handed them to Claire so she could cover them with sprinkles. Once there were enough with icing on, he and Cas joined in decorating.

“What do you think, a sugar flower on this one or a jelly sweet?” Dean asked.

“Both!” Cas and Claire said together, and Claire’s giggling made them both laugh.

Cas leaned over and attacked Dean’s cake with sprinkles, and Dean’s indignant “hey!” was ruined by his obvious amusement. Claire struggled through her giggling to put more jelly sweets on Dean’s cake until it was completely covered in decorations.

Dean's chest and face hurt from how much he was laughing at the two of them being so silly and happy.

-

Once they were finished, Cas took Claire upstairs to change her top into a non-flour covered one while Dean packed the cakes into boxes. Cas came up behind him as he watched his hands at the sink.

“Do you want to change this?” He asked, tugging lightly at Dean’s flour dusted shirt.

Dean shrugged. “I’m okay.”

Cas leaned against the sink. “Thank you for tonight.”

Dean smiled. “I thought you’d need something to celebrate surviving a week working late.”

“You’re so amazing. I don’t even know how to thank you properly.”

“You don’t have to,” Dean patted his arm gently. “You’re welcome. And I enjoyed myself a lot too.”

“So did Claire. I haven’t seen her that happy in a while.”

“She’s happy to see you happy,” Dean replied.

Cas frowned. “What?”

“She may only be seven years old, but she’s incredibly perceptive - she knows you so well, Cas, she knows every one of your emotions.”

Cas was speechless. Finally he choked out “has she told you that?”

“No. Not really. But I can tell.”

Cas pulled Dean in for a hug, his face pressed against Dean’s shoulder. Dean’s arms tightened round him, not really understanding why exactly he was getting hugged, but he wasn’t going to complain.

“You understand her so well,” Cas said, his head resting on Dean’s shoulder. “Me as well, you know exactly what I need.”

“Cas,” Dean pulled back so Cas had to look him straight in the eyes. “You and Claire are exactly what I need. It goes both ways.”

Cas stared at him numbly, his mouth popping open to form a small “o” of surprise. They were interrupted by Claire.

“Daddy, can we watch the Aristocats now?”

“Sure sweetheart,” he smiled at Dean. “You can stay, can’t you?”

Dean smiled back. “Of course.”

Claire’s beaming grin would have made him stay even if he’d been set on leaving.

They settled on the sofa, Claire in the middle of the two of them, although she did lean up against her dad. Which was completely fine with Dean - he was under no illusions that he could replace Cas as the most important person in Claire’s life. Nor did he want to. He just wanted to be there for the two of them in whatever way they’d take him.

Halfway through, Cas left and came back through with a plate of their cakes, including the one that they’d drowned in decorations. He passed it to Dean, grinning.

“I can’t eat that,” Dean protested.

“Yes you can, its the rules.” Cas’s grin widened.

“Rules?” Dean repeated, but Claire’s giggle as she watched them made it impossible for him to keep up his protest.

“You’re the guest, which means you get the special one.” Cas explained.

Dean raised his eyebrows. “Or maybe you should get the special one because you’ve had a hard week at work and this was your celebration, hmm?”

Cas laughed. “Oh no, that’s not how it works.”

“No?” He glanced at Claire who was watching them tease each other. “Or maybe Claire should get it, because she’s had the hardest week out of all of us, putting up with me every night.”

“Dean!” She protested, scowling. “You know that’s not true!”

Cas kissed her forehead. “He’s a silly man, Claire, just ignore him.”

She shook her head, but her scowl faded when Dean passed the cake over to her. “But its yours,” she told him, surprised.

He smiled. “And now its yours.”

She stared at him for a moment and then took it. “Thanks, Dean.”

“No problem, honey.” He glanced away as Cas passed him another cake.

“Now are you going to accept this one?” Cas asked him mock seriously.

He laughed. “Thanks Cas.”

They’d missed a large part of the film but Claire had seen it so many times that she didn’t mind, and Dean and Cas were more focused on each other than the film. They kept glancing at each other and meeting each other’s gaze over the top of Claire’s head, before grinning sheepishly and glancing away again.  
They were completely hopeless, but they didn’t mind. Every moment that they spent with each other strengthened their relationship, whatever it was, and every new thing they found out about each other was another affirmation that maybe they could turn this into something more and it would work.

But at that moment in time, they were happy to sit watching films with Claire and to be adorably awkward with each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's still reading and paticularly everyone who's left a comment (or even several) - they honestly mean so much and keep me motivated to write this, so thank you <3
> 
> Next chapter will come soon!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean takes Cas and Claire on an afternoon out.

Claire had given Dean more of her drawings, although the only one he had in his office at work was the first one of the impala she'd done. The others were at his flat, and he was fast running out of frames and space on his shelves to put them all. But they made him smile on the days he got home after a terrible day at work, or reminded him of a particular evening with the two of them while he ate his dinner.

He didn't go to the Novak's house every night, but they made it a routine that he'd go on Friday at the very least. Cas told him that Claire was happier the more often he came round, and Dean wished he could be round every night. But he had to look after himself - he'd started going to the gym again on a Monday and Thursday night.

Sam rang him one Wednesday.

"So who it?" Sam asked.

"What? Who's who?"

"The person you're dating."

"Who says I'm dating anyone?"

"C'mon, you haven't been this happy in ages. And you don't ring me as much as you used to - hey, I'm not complaining, I get all my marking done on time now - but that means you're not in your apartment by yourself as much. Therefore, you're dating someone."

"Well nice one Sherlock, but I'm not dating anyone. Not really."

He could actually hear Sam's forehead frowning in confusion. "You want to explain that to me?"

Dean sighed. "You remember Cas Novak?"

There was a pause. "The guy who's wife died, right?"

"Yeah."

"The one you've been obsessing over for the past two years?"

"Sam -"

But Sam interrupted his protest. "So you're 'not really dating' him?" Sam sounded like he didn't believe him.

"He's got a kid. Claire. And I've been round for dinner - with both of them - a few times."

"Define a few."

"What?"

"Well, its more than once. But this has been going on for a while now, right?"

"What -"

"How many times a week do you go round?"

"Um, at least once -"

Sam's laughter startled him. "And that's not dating?!"

"But its both of them, Sam. I'm there for Claire as much as I am for Cas."

"So Cas's daughter likes you?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Then what's stopping you from asking him on a date? A proper one? Hell, the problems with kids with single parents and their boyfriends or girlfriends are normally that the kids don't get on with their possible new mum or dad - believe me, parents evenings are hell. But if Claire likes you, then go for it."

Dean dropped his head into his hands. "Cas doesn't date, Sam. He won't leave Claire alone."

"Not even for you?"

Dean groaned. "No. Besides, I wouldn't want to leave her out. I care about her just as much."

"Wow." Sam sounded - impressed?

"What do you mean, 'wow'?"

"Dude, you're in deep."

"Don't -"

"Hey, I didn't say it was a bad thing! I'm really happy for you, honest."

Dean shook his head, confused. "You are?"

"Of course! My big brother's happy, of course I'm happy. And you've - kinda - got a kid. Or at least, you get to spend time with one. And you always wanted kids, right?"

"Alright, stop reading too much into this."

"Have you picked her up from school yet?"

"Yes, but -"

"Have you taken her home and cooked her dinner and she hasn't complained?"

"Yes -"

"Is she happy when you're there?"

"I guess -"

"Are you happy?"

"Of course I am."

"Now tell me which part of all that is worse than what we had with dad."

Dean's breath hitched. "You want to bring dad up now?"

"He wasn't the worst, by a long way, but he wasn't the best either. You sound happier about Claire than dad ever was about us." There was a moment's silence - Dean couldn't dispute that. Then Sam said, "take them both out. Get pizza or something, or go to a diner - what's Claire into?"

"Drawing. Art."

"Any art galleries round you? Or places where kids can do crafts?"

"Maybe..."

"Well look it up. And take them both out, give them a nice day doing something different."

Dean nodded and then realised that Sam couldn't see him. "Right. Thanks Sam."

"Anytime. Just want to help out."

"Same here." Dean grinned. "So how's Sarah?"

Sam groaned. "Don't make me have this conversation again."

"Why not? I'm trying to help."

"She'll never have me, Dean, okay?"

"Have you asked her?"

"No of course not!"

"Then how do you know? You can't put it off forever."

Sam scoffed "says you who took two years to ask Cas on a 'not really date'."

"Shut up!" Dean shouted over Sam's laughter. He grinned. "Well, keep me updated on Miss Blake okay? Or find someone else. You deserve to be happy."

"If there wasn't a phone line in the way I'd have hugged you by now, Dean, that was beautiful."

"Shut up. I'm serious."

"I know. Thanks. Now work out what you're doing with Cas and Claire and make sure you ring me to say how it went."

"Will do." Dean paused. "Thanks Sam."

"You're welcome. I'm glad you've got them."

Dean smiled. "Yeah, me too. Talk to you soon okay?"

"Will do. Bye Dean."

"Bye Sam."

-

Dean brought up his plans on Friday as they ate dinner. He was nervous, unsure of how they were going to react.

He cleared his throat. "So, um, I wondered what you were planning on doing this weekend."

They both looked at him so quickly he was surprised their necks didn't snap.

"I don't think we have any plans, no." Cas was watching him curiously.

Dean smiled nervously. "I, um, wondered if you'd like to go somewhere this weekend." He rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. "With me," he clarified, hoping that either of them would say something, anything -

"Can we?!" Claire asked Cas excitedly. "Daddy please?"

"Aren't you going to ask where we're going?" Cas replied, a small smile playing on his lips. He was looking at Dean in a state of awe.

Claire turned to Dean, clearly ready to ask. He grinned. "Can't tell you. Its a surprise."

Claire pouted adorably. Cas tried to hide his grin as he said "come on, that's not fair!"

Dean realised he was teasing but held back his laughter. "Well, you'll have to say yes so you can find out then won't you?"

"Please!!" Claire pleaded her dad. He pretended to deliberate for a moment before nodding and saying "I don't see why not."

"Yey!" Claire cried out happily and jumped up to throw her arms around Dean as well as she could with him sat down. He grinned, hugging back as best he could.

"Claire do you want to fetch your zoo project book and show Dean where you're up to?" Cas asked. She nodded and skipped off, humming happily.

While she was gone, they discussed Dean's plans, at least as far as what day and time he'd be picking them up. He kept what they were doing mostly secret, although he told Cas to make sure Claire had clothes on that she didn't mind getting possibly messy. Cas told him that that was all her clothes so it would be no problem.  
By the time Claire got back with her scrapbook, their outing was planned. None of them could wait.

-

Dean drove round to the Novak’s for one o'clock on Saturday, humming along nervously to the radio. He was extremely excited, but that didn’t stop his stomach from churning with anxiousness. What if it all went wrong? What if they didn’t enjoy themselves?

The door opened as soon as he pulled into the drive - he’d barely stopped the car when Claire was at his car door, waving at him excitedly. He grinned back at her and opened the door carefully so he didn’t accidentally knock her out.

“Dean can we go?” She asked, hugging his waist happily. He hugged back as Cas came out of the house, looking extremely attractive in dark jeans, a blue shirt and a black coat. Dark colours were definitely Cas’s best - they emphasised his hair and made his bright blue eyes stand out even more.

“Hey Dean,” he called out. “Do you want to come in first?”

Claire pouted. “Daddy why can’t we go now?!”

Dean smiled down at her - her enthusiasm was contagious. “I don’t see why we can’t go now.” He glanced at Cas who had made his way across the drive to them and was admiring the impala (Dean had washed and polished her especially for today). “Unless you want to stay -”

“No no! Its fine, we can go whenever you want!” Cas grinned. “I also have no idea where we’re going or how long it will take us to get there so…”

“Its all worked out, I promise.” Dean reassured him.

Cas nodded, his eyes full of warmth. “I know.” He cleared his throat. “Claire, will you get in the car while I lock up?”

Claire nodded and climbed into the back Dean’s car, as she’d done every day that week Dean had picked her up from school and several times since when he’d taken her to the shop to buy ingredients for their baking endeavours.

Dean helped her strap in before getting back into the driver’s seat, drumming his hands on the steering wheel while he watched Cas lock up. Then Cas was back, getting into the front passenger seat after checking Claire (not that he didn’t trust Dean, it was just habit) before looking across at Dean with a dazzling happy smile. “Okay?”

Dean nodded, and glanced behind him. “Okay Claire?”

Her equally beaming smile told him that she was more than okay. He grinned and reversed out of the drive.

-

Dean was thankful for Sam's suggestion to research because it turned out there were a number of places that he thought Claire would enjoy - which would be useful if he ever got the chance to take them both out again.

But he was glad he'd chosen the place he had when he saw Claire's face light up. It was a small farm place where they kept lots of different animals - they apparently had a petting zoo as well, and although Claire had never made a big fuss about small animals, her obsession with animals in general made him think that she might enjoy it. The old farm building had been renovated into an activity centre and apparently also had several independent shops inside, for local artists and crafts people. It had looked pretty great online - Dean just hoped it lived up to its appearance. 

Claire beamed as Cas helped her out of the car, who himself was looking around happily. Dean was relieved that they were taking it so well so far.

"Do you want to go inside or outside first?" Dean asked her.

She stared up at him with wide eyes. "Inside? They have animals inside too?"

Dean grinned. "You'll have to wait and find out." She beamed up at him and took hold of his coat sleeve, dragging him along to the building's entrance.

Dean paid for their entry, despite Cas's protests, and the lady pointed them through to a door on the right.

Claire's eyes widened when she saw what was there.

It was a large room filled with small tables, which were covered with paint pots and paint brushes. On one side was a huge wall of shelves filled with small pottery models - they were all kinds of animals and creatures, although they didn’t have any fragile parts that could break easily from small clumsy hands. It was obvious from the children at the tables what they were for - the pot animals were getting painted in vibrant colours.

Dean held out his hand to Claire. “Do you want to go pick one?” She nodded and took his hand, smiling.

Dean led her over to the shelves where a young woman was waiting to help them and Cas followed behind, taking in the whole room in amazement. This place was so perfect for Claire. He didn’t know how to thank Dean properly for finding it.

The young woman helping Claire choose must have been still in school by the look of her, but not far off leaving. But then Cas couldn't tell how old children and teenagers were anymore - they all seemed to grow up so fast.

"Daddy what do you think of this one?" Claire asked him, holding out a pottery cat.

He smiled. "Very nice. What kind of cat are you going to make it?"

She huffed at his incompetence. "Its not going to be a cat. Its going to be a tiger!"

"Aren't tigers a form of cat?" He asked, wondering how much they taught her in school.

She frowned. "But they're bigger than cats..."

The girl was watching them, smiling. Dean grinned at her. "Claire's got a bit of a thing about tigers."

"So I can see," she smiled at the smaller girl. "Tigers? Did you know we had a wildcat a few years ago?"

Claire's nose scrunched adorably. "But how is it wild if its in a cage?"

Cas and Dean both grinned at her literalism. The girl explained to her how wildcat was just a name and led her over to a table where she could start painting her cat into a tiger. Cas and Dean held back for a moment and Cas touched Dean's arm gently. "Thank you for this," he said, eyes shining with happiness.

Dean smiled. "Apparently there's an old book store in one of the rooms."

Cas's eyes widened. "Where did you find this place?"

Dean shrugged. "I didn't realise it was here at all until I looked up places where kids could do arts and crafts."

"Wow," Cas looked as if he was about to say something else but Claire called out to them and they went over to her. The girl helping her smiled and said "if you need anything else just let me know" before leaving them in peace.

"Daddy they've got acrylic paints!" She told Cas excitedly. "Miss Braeden doesn't let us use them because they’re too messy!”

Cas smiled as he crouched down and wrapped an arm around her. “Well it’s a good job you’re got clothes on you can get messy, isn’t it? Good thing Dean told us to do that.”

She beamed at him and then up at Dean. Cas kissed her hair. “So which colours do you need then? Green?”

She giggled. “Daddy, tigers aren’t green!”

“They’re not?! But wouldn’t that work better because they live in a jungle? Wouldn’t they blend in better?”

Claire frowned in thought. “What if the trees were orange instead?” She brightened. “Orange trees! Tigers live in orange trees!”

Cas laughed. “Or maybe,” he passed her the pot of orange paint, “it’s because they used to be little ginger cats and then one day they started growing and growing until they were tiger sized like they are now.”

Claire shook her head. “That’s not how it works. You’re wrong.”

His eyes widened in mock horror. “Wrong? Wrong?!” He looked up at Dean. “Am I wrong?”

Dean tried to contain his laughter at seeing Cas and Claire both so happy and joking together. He pretended to consider seriously. “Well I suppose that could work… but then how do you explain polar bears? Giant teddy bears?”

Cas shook his head. “Dean’s silly, isn’t he Claire? Thinking that polar bears come from teddy bears.”

She giggled, painting on slightly wobbly orange strips onto her cat. “Not at silly as you.”

Cas gasped, pretending to be offended but it dissolved into laughter once Claire’s giggling became too contagious for him. He was just unbelievably happy to see her so happy. He hadn’t seen her this giggly in a long time.

Dean went to fetch chairs for Cas and himself so they could sit more comfortably and still be with Claire. He didn’t even try and hide his smile – they were both so happy and enjoying this so much. It was working out. Thank God. He didn’t realise quite how worried he’d been until he felt that huge weight lift off him when he saw the two of them smile and laugh at each other.  
Claire fell silent soon after the initial teasing died down – both of the two men knew that meant she was in her art head space, and that she was happy being quiet. Once she added the black lines, it was starting to look remarkably like a tiger. She hummed happily.

Cas glanced around. “Claire, do you want a drink?” She blinked at him before nodding. He turned to Dean. “Can I get you anything? I was going to have coffee…”  
“Coffee’s good for me too, thanks,” Dean smiled at him. Cas grinned, ruffling Claire’s hair gently before heading off to find the small café area that he’d seen on the way in.  
Dean watched Claire paint silently, his thoughts calm. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

“Dean,” Claire said suddenly.

“Yes Claire?”

There was a moment’s pause. “Do you think daddy likes cats?”

He was surprised by the question. “I – I’ve never really thought about it.”

“Hmmm,” she responded. Another pause. Then: “I like cats.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Other than tigers?”

She nodded. “Tigers and girl lions are the best because they’re bigger and they’re not scared of anything and they’re the ones that get the food. But I like little cats too.”

Dean smiled. “I didn’t think you did like them.”

She huffed. “Well I do.” Before Dean could respond to that she asked “what colour eyes do tigers have?”

-

Cas carried a tray with his and Dean’s coffee and Claire’s apple juice on it, which meant he couldn’t open the door. Thankfully, the young woman came to his rescue.  
“Thank you,” he said once the door had closed behind him.

She smiled. “No problem. Is your daughter having a good time?”

Cas grinned, looking over to where Dean and Claire were in some form of conversation. “I think so. Yes, she is. This place is perfect for her.”

“She’s quite the artist,” the girl commented. “And she certainly knows her animals.”

Cas’s eyes grew soft whenever anyone complimented Claire. “Art’s an ongoing obsession of her’s. Animals is just her current one,” he explained.

The girl nodded. “Well, I’m glad she loves art as much as she does. So many kids these days don’t like drawing and painting at all - now where’s the fun in life if you don’t do art?”

“I think my daughter would agree with you.” Cas placed the tray on a nearby table. “If you don’t mind me asking, are you still at school?”

She nodded. “Just. I’m in my last year. I’m going to art college next year.”

“Oh wow! Congratulations! I’m sure you’ll have a great time.”

She smiled. “Thank you - I’m sure I will! I work here at the weekends and in the holidays, partly for the art and partly for the kids - I want to be a nursery teacher.”

“My uh, Dean -” Cas cursed his awkwardness. “His brother is a teacher. But for older kids.”

She nodded, not seeming either to notice or care about his slip up. “Kids are great, aren’t they? And your daughter - Claire, is it? - she seems to be one of the really nice ones.”

Cas flushed with pride at the compliment to Claire. “Yes, she is.”

“And she’s lucky to have a brilliant dad and a Dean,” she smiled at the embarrassment flushing to his cheeks. “I should let you get back to them. Don’t want your coffee getting cold.”

“Right. Thanks.” He gave a little wave before picking up his tray and going back to Dean and Claire.

-

Once Claire had finished her painting, they left the newly painted tiger with the girl who'd been helping them so it could dry and went outside. Dean bought Claire a small bag of animal feed so that she could throw it into the pens for the animals. She ran down the path ahead of Cas and Dean, looking from one animal to the next with uncontained excitement. Dean had never really understood kids' obsessions with animals - he didn't think he'd ever had it. But watching and knowing Claire, it made a bit more sense. They were so interesting, even the ones that adults thought were boring like ducks.

Cas was strangely quiet but Dean didn't try to push him into a conversation. He didn't want to ruin how well the day was going by forcing Cas into talking. Besides, the silence wasn't awkward. It was comfortable silence and the fact that Cas was still walking next to him instead of rushing to catch up with Claire reassured Dean that Cas was okay.

The silence continued for a few more minutes, although Dean did let out a small laugh at Claire's look of amazement when she saw the lambs in their pen.

Then - and Dean wasn't completely sure when exactly it happened - he felt Cas's hand brush the back of his gently.  
His eyes snapped up and met Cas's, who was watching him anxiously. Cas felt slightly sick. Had he pushed this too far? Had he read to much into all this? Did Dean even want this -  
Dean took a deep breath and laced his fingers through Cas's. He gave a gentle, comforting squeeze and Cas visibly relaxed. He squeezed back, which made Dean smile. Cas was too gorgeous and too good and too respectful to be real.

"This is okay?" Cas asked him, still a note of anxiety in his voice.

Dean smiled and squeezed his hand again reassuringly. "This is more than okay. This is perfect."

Cas's breath hitched with amazement. He offered a small, shy smile which made Dean's heart melt.

They walked hand in hand for a few minutes, marvelling at how right it felt, how comfortable. Dean had expected to be terrified of this, but it was completely the opposite. He felt safe with Cas.

Claire ran back to them a few minutes later and saw them holding hands and demanded that she wanted to hold hands too. Dean chuckled and let go of Cas's hand and took Claire's right while Cas too her left hand. Her chatter about the different animals soothed both of them and made them smile at each other over her head.

This day was perfect.

-

Dean collapsed onto his bed when he got home later than evening. They'd looked round the farm and then gone back inside so that he could show Cas the old bookshop and so Claire could see all the art and crafts. He'd realised with a jolt that it was nearly 5pm already - he hadn't expected to be out so late. Cas had bought a book while Dean took Claire to collect her tiger model, which had fully dried by the time they got back.

They all got back in the car and Cas had surprised Dean by squeezing his hand lightly before they set off. "Do you fancy going out for dinner?" Cas asked him. "It seems a bit late to just go home... and I feel like we should thank you for today in some way as well."

Dean blinked at him in amazement. Then he glanced at Claire in the back seat. "You want to go out for dinner, Claire?"

She grinned. "Yes please!"

"Guess that settles it then," Dean smiled at her and then at Cas. "Anywhere in mind?"

His face lit up. "There's, um, this diner in town that does the best burgers in the world -"

Claire giggled at Dean as he looked at her as if to say "you were right".

Cas frowned. "What? What did I miss?"

"Claire told me you liked burgers," Dean explained. "I didn't realise you were this obsessed," he teased.

Cas's mouth fell open indignantly but it fell away into a smile. "Are we going then?"

-

Dean grinned as he remembered how when they arrived at Harvelle's diner Cas and Claire had been welcomed by the owner, Ellen, and her daughter Jo like family. Maybe they weren't as alone as they thought, or as Dean had expected. Ellen welcomed Dean too, unable to hide how happy she was that Cas and Claire weren't completely alone anymore.

The burgers had been amazing. Ellen had even made Claire a special smaller one so that she could have one too. No one commented on exactly what Dean was to Cas and Claire, although it didn't stop Ellen from tearing up a bit when she saw Claire smile at Dean when he cut cat ears onto the top of her bread bun.

Cas went to pay at the bar, because Dean had paid for the farm and for Claire to paint her tiger so it wasn't fair for him to have to pay for dinner too. He'd talked to Ellen for a few minutes and came back grinning, but didn't explain why.

Dean had dropped the two of them off at home just before 8pm. He got hugs from both of them, but it was still the thought of Cas holding his hand earlier that made him insanely happy.  
Lying on his bed, completely exhausted, he remembered his promise to let Sam know how it got on.

Sam picked up on the first ring. "How did it go?"

Dean rolled onto his back, grinning. "It was amazing."

"Oh no, you've got that love struck sound to your voice. What happened? Cas tell you he loved you?"

"No!" Dean wondered suddenly if he should have said that to Cas. Was it too soon? He didn't know. "We, um, just held hands."

"Wow." Then Sam's voice took on a teasing tone. "So for "almost dating", what does that count as? Third base?"

Dean groaned. "Shut up Sam."

"I'm just kidding. Did Claire enjoy herself?"

"Yeah, a lot. Cas says he hasn't seen her that happy in a long time."

"Wow," Sam said again. "I'm so happy for you, Dean."

"What? Why?"

"Because you've got something. Someone. And you're happy. And you deserve that."

Dean flushed, glad that Sam was on the phone and not in the same room. "Right. Sure."

"I'm serious." Sam paused for a moment, clearly thinking. Dean could imagine the cogs turning in his brain. "So Claire didn't have a problem with you holding her dad's hand?"

"No, I don't think so." He played it back in his mind. "No, not at all." He paused. "Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"I think," he took a deep breath. "I think this is the one." 

There was a moment's silence. "I think so too." 

"You do? You've never even met them. And I've told you about them, what twice?" 

"That doesn't matter. You care about them. They clearly both care about you. And well, if Claire likes you - loves you, even - then you're past the hard part." 

Dean bit his lip. "You think this is the right thing to do?" 

"Is that even a question?" Sam asked with surprise. "Are you happy?" 

"Yes." 

"Are they happy?" 

"Yes. I think so, anyway." 

"Then I think it is. If you think Cas is the one - and Claire too, I guess - then I think you're right. You're not the sort of person who throws words like that around without thinking about them." 

"Unlike you." 

Sam laughed quietly. "I'm getting better." There was a moment's silence. Dean felt a wave of calm and happiness wash over him. "Hey Dean?" 

"Yeah?" 

"Just a heads up - I want to be able to meet Cas and Claire before you marry him, okay?" 

Dean's surprised laughter startled himself. "You think we're going to get married any time soon?" 

He could hear Sam's grin. "No. Not if it took you two years to ask him on a date. You'll probably be in your eighties by the time one of you two proposes." 

Dean rolled his eyes. "Very funny Sammy. We've only held hands, don't get ahead of yourself." Don't get ahead of yourself either, he told himself. 

"Fine, fine." Dean's yawn cut off whatever else Sam had been about to say. "Dude go to sleep already. You must be exhausted." 

Dean yawned again. "I promised I'd ring you as soon as I got back, remember?" 

"Sure, blame it all on me." Sam sighed with mock exasperation. "I'm so glad you had a great time," he said, the joking tone disappearing. 

Dean smiled. "Thanks. And thanks for persuading me to do something. It was worth it." 

"Don't mention it." Sam yawned. "You've set me off now! And I've still got ten essays to mark!" 

Dean grinned. "I'll leave you to it then. Night Sam." 

"Night Dean. I'm so glad you had an awesome time today." 

Dean dialed off after a tired "mmm hmm" in agreement and lay on the bed for a moment longer. The feel of Cas's hand in his - he'd never be able to forget that. He never wanted to forget that. 

Sam may have been a bit of an idiot when it came to his own relationships but he was the only person who really understood Dean and what he wanted, even without Dean telling him. As he began to get ready to have a shower so he could go to bed, he wondered what the expected length of time you were meant to date someone before you could introduce them to your family. 

He grinned. But then he and Cas weren't an ordinary couple. They weren't even really dating. So the rules didn't apply to them. They could do what they wanted.

He fell into bed with wet hair, not bothering to try and dry it. As he drifted off to sleep, his final thought was of Cas's hand in his. He needed Monday to come already so he could see Cas again and see if his hand felt the same when they were in the office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! sorry its been such a long time since I updated - I have exams which are taking up most of my time so I have very limited time to write anything. I doubt I'll be uploading the next chapter any time soon either. sorry :\ hopefully I made up for that by posting a long chapter and having a lot of things happen in it :)
> 
> anyway - the place that Dean takes Cas and Claire to is based on a place near where I live that unfortunately closed when I was about 6 or 7. but you could go and paint little pot animals and models and it was amazing. its now an animal rescue centre which is where the idea for the animals came from. just in case anyone was wondering :)  
> also: any thoughts on Sam? I hadn't considered him being in it properly until someone mentioned it and it opened my eyes to the possibilities. besides, every fic is better with Sam in right?
> 
> again, thank you for reading! <3
> 
> (btw if anyone's interested, my tumblr url is kittiecas :) just if you have tumblr and want to have a chat or something, idk)


	7. Chapter 7

Dean was all hesitant and blushes when he got to work on Monday morning. Cas wasn’t in when he got to his office so he sat and started working on the report that Mr Singer wanted by the end of the week. His fingers stuttered over the keys of his computer and he kept glancing up to see if Cas was in yet. Only then would the churning in his stomach disappear.

He knew the moment that Cas arrived - he came straight to Dean’s office before even dropping his bag off at his own. Cas hesitated in the doorway, his blue eyes soft but also slightly nervous. “Um, good morning.”

All Dean wanted to do was rush over to him, but he was suddenly shy. “Morning,” he stuttered out in response.

Cas ran a hand through his hair - as if Dean wasn’t already hyper aware of his hands. “Claire wouldn’t stop talking about how amazing our outing was. She enjoyed it so much.”

Dean nodded and cleared his throat. “Did - did you?”

Cas gave a small but tender smile. “Yes. A lot.” He swallowed. “There was, uh, one bit I, um, particularly enjoyed.”

Dean stood up hesitantly and took slow steps over to Cas, eyes wide. He reached out for Cas’s hand and took it gently. “You mean this?” He asked, his voice catching slightly.

Cas swallowed and laced their fingers tighter. “Yeah, this.”

Dean glanced down at their hands and smiled softly. “Never thought we’d get here, you know?”

Cas let out a breathy surprised laugh. “Me neither.”

Dean felt calmer now that he was touching Cas again. And more confident. He leaned back against his desk, taking both of Cas’s hands in his and pulling Cas so he was stood in front of him. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” Dean admitted. “And this,” he nodded at their hands.

Cas smiled. “Me neither.” He took a deep breath. “But, um, this is okay for now, right? This is enough?”

Dean frowned. “Cas?”

“Just, I don’t want to go too fast.” He looked down, embarrassed.

“Cas, hey,” he squeezed his hands reassuringly. Cas looked up warily. “The last thing I want to do is push you into something you’re not comfortable with. Right now, this is perfect. I promise.”

Cas stepped closer, pulling Dean up into a hug, his face buried against Dean’s shoulder. Dean thought he murmured something but didn’t catch what it was.

“I’ll see you later then?” Cas asked as he pulled away.

Dean smiled and replied, “well we probably need to discuss our next outing don’t we?”

Cas grinned. “See you later.”

-

They made it their routine - Dean would go for dinner once during the week and then they’d go out one day at the weekend. Sometimes they did simple things, like taking a picnic to the park because Claire wanted to see the trees and flowers - they ended up playing a game of football which left all three of them collapsed on the grass afterwards.

Sometimes they had proper outings - Cas had found an art gallery in nearby city and although he’d been worried that maybe it was a bit too grown up for Claire, she’d loved it so much; seeing the huge canvases of colour had inspired her to try and do something similar, although on a much smaller scale. Whenever Dean went over to their house in the following two weeks he found Claire painting furiously on large pieces of card that Cas had found for her. She gave one to Dean because it had lots of green in and she said it reminded her of Dean.

-

They didn’t hold hands while they were at work because they both silently agreed that there had to be some differentiation between work and when they were together. That didn’t stop them holding hands when they went out for lunch or coffee together, or at the end of the day when everyone else had gone and they were the last in the building.

They weren’t trying to keep it secret, they just didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. They didn’t see why anyone else needed to know, except perhaps the women that kept asking them out on dates.

The news filtered out amongst their close colleagues after one of the women on their floor asked Dean out for a drink on Friday night - it had been incredibly awkward because Cas had been in his office with his door open so he probably heard the whole thing. 

Perhaps it was seeing Cas’s scruffy hair through the window that made him say “I - I can’t I’m afraid, I’m going to Cas’s on Friday.”

“Cas? Cas Novak?”

“Um, yeah.” Dean could feel his blush growing.

“You two are -” she broke off frowning.

Dean coughed slightly. “Yeah.”

“Oh.” She seemed shocked. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise.”

Dean smiled, hoping that this would be the last one of these awkward events he’d have to deal with. “Its fine. You didn’t know.”

She nodded slowly and allowed Dean to show her out. Cas glanced up at them and she took a very unsubtle look at the two of them before walking off frowning.

Cas raised his eyebrows. “You okay?”

Dean grimaced. “Did you hear that?’

Cas nodded. "I didn’t know you were coming over on Friday.”

Dean opened his mouth to apologise, to say that he’d just needed a way out, when he saw Cas’s lips twitch slightly as he tried to hide his laughter. Dean grinned, letting out a short laugh. “Am I allowed over on Friday?”

Cas tried to be serious again, but his blue eyes glittered with amusement so it failed slightly. “I suppose you better had now. I’m always telling Claire off for lying, can’t let you get into that habit too.”

-

Cas came into Dean’s office later that day, chuckling. Dean looked up. “Do I get to hear the joke?”

“The coffee room was interesting today,” Cas told him, still grinning. “Apparently we’re the latest gossip.”

“Seriously?” But then, what had he expected? “And why is that so funny?”

“Because apparently people - well, women really - are upset because we were "the two hot eligible bachelors” and we had to go and get off with each other.“

Dean huffed a laugh, but he didn’t find it as funny as Cas appeared to.

Cas frowned, stepping closer. "Does it bother you?”

Dean shrugged. “I don’t see why its their business.”

“Dean,” Cas took his hand, rubbing soothing circles onto its back. “You know how it works. Everyone feels they have the right to know everything about everyone else. Its no different for us.”

Dean sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just wish that what we have wouldn’t be dissected in the coffee room by people we hardly know.”

Cas frowned at him. “Are you being protective?” When Dean made a non committal shrug, Cas actually laughed in surprise. “Do you realise how endearing that is?”

Dean looked anxious and then smiled at the warmth in Cas’s eyes. “Yeah, I guess I am a bit. I just don’t see why this has anything to do with them.”

“Neither do I,” Cas agreed. “But we just have to put up with it for a while, okay? It’ll die down soon, I’m sure.”

“I hope so,” Dean murmured. Then he squeezed Cas’s hand. “Thanks.”

"It's okay," Cas squeezed back gently. "Besides, we don't have to pay attention to it. And I doubt anyone will bring it up with us, that's not how gossip seems to work."

Dean chuckled at that. "I suppose I should feel a bit bad for taking the most gorgeous guy in the company away from all those poor women."

Cas frowned at that. "I'm afraid I have to disagree with the allocation of 'most gorgeous guy' because he's clearly right in front of me." 

"When you look in a mirror," Dean replied, teasing him slightly. 

Cas rolled his eyes. "I'll see you later." 

"Watch out for that gorgeous guy," Dean called after him. "Don't want him stealing you away from me." 

Cas paused at the doorway. "You're an idiot," he said, but with overwhelming fondness in his voice. Dean couldn't help but grin. 

-

Their first kiss of any kind was completely spontaneous. 

One morning, Cas brought Dean coffee during his break and stayed for a few minutes to talk before turning to leave. 

Dean jumped up, “Cas would you mind taking these to Mr Singer? If you’re headed that way -”

Cas took the files of paper, smiling. “Of course.”

“Thanks,” Dean leaned in and kissed his cheek before sitting back down again. He looked up in the next few minutes and realised Cas was still stood there. “Oh. Oh! God, I’m so sorry, was that too quick? I didn’t -”

Cas took a deep breath. “Its fine. More than fine. I’m just, surprised.”

“Yeah,” Dean searched for something else to say.

Cas smiled gently at him. “I’ll see you later.”

That night when Dean arrived at Cas’s house, Cas came through and gave him a kiss on the cheek before asking how work was. It made them both insanely happy to be able to express how they felt for each other, without Dean feeling like he was rushing Cas into something he didn't feel ready for, and without Cas feeling like he was holding Dean back from something he wanted to do but couldn't yet because Cas wasn't ready. 

Cheek kisses were also much more easier to do in multiple situations than holding hands was. Cas would kiss Dean's cheek when he met Dean at his house doorway, or as he left Dean's office after a quick chat during break. Likewise, Dean would kiss Cas's cheek to thank him for bringing him decent coffee or during dinner when the food was absolutely delicious. Cas had been worried about what Claire might think of it but she'd been completely unfazed. 

During the following three weeks, Dean went over for dinner multiple times and they also visited a craft centre when Claire learnt how to make a sock puppet and also got to paint on glass. Cas had put the light bulb she'd painted in the downstairs bathroom and so it was now bathed in green and blue, which gave the feeling that they were in the ocean. Claire had moved on from her obsession with tigers and had moved onto the sea, because she loved the colours of the sea more. On the weekend after the craft centre visit, they went to the closest aquarium which both Cas and Dean found extremely calming. There was something soothing about seeing shoals of fish swimming in unpredictable patterns, some breaking free only to rejoin again, the shoal disappearing from sight behind a rock before reappearing again a few moments later. 

"Routine can get incredibly tedious can't it?" Cas murmured to Dean, watching a now familiar shoal reappear again. 

"Mm," Dean nodded in agreement. He squeezed Cas's hand which had been intertwined with his for most of the day as they walked round. "These trips out are good for us as well as Claire." 

Cas nodded, glancing round to check that Claire was still at the next tank along. She was so much more independent now that Dean was there, because she could do things while her dad and Dean followed behind, close enough that if something happened they'd be able to deal with it but far enough away that she felt some freedom. 

And she loved it. When it had just been her and her dad, he'd always been right next to her all the time, terrified of something happening to her or her getting lonely. But now he seemed to realise that she actually liked being alone sometimes, and that if she wanted to talk to them or show them something she'd run back and tell them. 

-

Cas and Dean only realised that they both watched the same sci-fi tv show when Cas mentioned it one lunchtime, suggesting that Dean should really start watching it, and that he could lend him the first season if he wanted. Dean had laughed, telling Cas that he had it already. It led to an enthusiastic conversation about the show over lunch, and the following Thursday when Cas settled down to watch it after putting Claire to bed, he'd smiled fondly as he realised that Dean would be doing the same thing. 

Dean happened to be at the Novak's house the following Thursday, and after dinner they watched The Little Mermaid because Claire had seen that it was about the sea and had begged Cas to let her get it when they were at the supermarket. Dean hummed along to the songs which made Claire giggle and Cas grin, because they hadn't expected him to know them.

Dean nudged Claire playfully. "Your dad knows them all too, he just doesn't want to admit it." 

Cas's overexaggerated offended look made Claire giggle even more.

The film ended and Cas took Claire upstairs to get ready for bed. She hugged Dean before she left and he waved as she grinned at him as Cas led her out of the room. 

He glanced at the clock and realised that he should really think about going. He'd set the recorder on his tv for the show that started in about 20 minutes, but he wanted to be gone soon so that Cas would be able to watch it in peace.

Dean stood up just as Cas came back into the room. He was surprised. "That was quick." 

Cas smiled. "Oh, she's just brushing her teeth now. But um, I wanted to catch you before you ran off." 

Dean huffed a laugh. "I wasn't going to "run off". I just wanted to get out of your way." 

Cas shook his head. "Dean Winchester, you are ridiculous." Before Dean could reply to that, he said. "Anyway, um, I wondered if you wanted to stay? And watch tonight's episode together? I mean, you don't have to -" 

"Cas, I'd love to." Dean smiled reassuringly. "Is that okay? With Claire, and everything -" 

Cas nodded. "I normally watch it now anyway, it won't keep her up." 

Dean took a deep breath. "Okay then. Yes, I'll stay. Thank you." 

Cas smiled dazzlingly and then gestured upstairs. "I'll sort Claire out and then come back down, okay?" 

Dean nodded and Cas ran back upstairs while Dean sat back down on the sofa. But where to sit? Claire normally sat between them, this was the first time it was just the two of them. Would anything happen? 

"Pull yourself together," he told himself. "It's just Cas, you don't need to worry." 

Still, when Cas came down ten minutes later, Dean was sat on one side of the sofa. Cas frowned slightly and turned the tv back on and found the right channel. Then he sat down in his normal spot, leaving a sizeable gap between them. 

Dean looked over and smiled nervously. Cas blinked. Dean was nervous? Of what? 

"Dean?" he said tentatively. He thought he'd been the slow one in this relationship, not Dean. 

"I, um," he looked down at his hands. "I don't know what to do." 

Cas paused for a moment, thinking, and then patted the sofa cushion next to him and held an arm out against the back of the sofa. 

Dean bit his lip and then moved closer. Cas said gently "I don't bite." 

Dean laughed at that and shuffled closer so that their sides were touching. "I know, I just - I'm being stupid." 

"No you're not, its okay." Cas glanced at him. "Is this okay? If its not then -" 

"No, this is nice." Dean took a deep breath. "Really nice." 

Cas smiled, relieved. "Yeah, I agree." He kissed Dean cheek gently and Dean looked like he was about to say something but then the opening credits started. 

They sat quietly as they watched, only saying a few words every now and then. Dean squeezed Cas's hand gently when an involuntary gasp slipped out at a sudden movement. 

Cas realised that Dean was slowly settling move comfortably against him, his head slipping onto his shoulder. Cas wondered for a moment if Dean had fallen asleep but a quiet chuckle at a joke put that thought to rest. 

Dean felt so safe and comfortable cuddled up with Cas. His arms were so warm and soft but also strong at the same time. He didn't know the last time he'd felt this so good - just from sitting on a sofa with someone too! 

It wasn't long until Dean had moved from sitting next to Cas to sitting sideways on the sofa, leaning up against Cas's chest with Cas's arms wrapped around him. He wasn't really concentrating that much on the tv - it was probably a good thing he had it recording at home because he'd probably need to rewatch it to know what was going on. 

Cas was amazed at how wonderful it felt to hold Dean the way he was, to have his arms round him like this. It was different to hugging, it was much more intimate. And it lasted much longer.

He didn't like cliches, but he felt his heart flutter in his chest every time Dean shifted slightly. This incredible man was real, he was here, in Cas's arms, in his house. Cas realised suddenly that this was what he wanted. Dean in his arms like this, forever. 

He hadn't felt like this in so long. He swallowed down the tears that threatened to pour down his cheeks. He didn't need Dean to see him like that. Not when he was so overwhelmingly happy. His tears were ones of happiness but he didn't want to ruin the moment by having to explain that to Dean. 

Dean shifted so his head was more confortably rested against Cas's shoulder.

Cas cleared his throat quietly. "Dean?" His heart was thumping so loudly, he was sure that Dean had to be able to hear it. 

Dean looked up. "He's so gorgeous," Cas thought, biting his lip slightly. "He's so perfect." 

Dean opened his mouth to ask if everything was okay, and then he saw Cas's expression. And he saw his eyes flickering nervously between Dean's eyes and his lips. Asking. 

Dean smiled and softly brought their lips together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I thought I'd move things along a bit more in this chapter, but I'm sorry if you thought it was rushed! I have a lot I still want to do with this fic so I wanted to be able to get to all that some time soon.
> 
> also - thank you to everyone who wished me luck in my exams! I only have one left now and the rest went okay, but anyway, I can get back to writing again now :)
> 
> (does this chapter seem a lot shorter than the others or is it just me? I think I've fitted more into it, so I'm a bit confused about why it seems shorter)


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